Knowledge, attitudes and practice of diabetes mellitus amongst postgraduate trainees and undergraduate medical students: a multi-centric questionnaire - based survey

ABSTRACT

To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of Diabetes Mellitus [DM] amongst doctors and medical students. This is a questionnaire based survey that was carried out at Army Medical College Rawalpindi and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, from Jul 2001 to Jul 2009. A questionnaire was designed comprising 20 questions examining knowledge [7 questions], attitude [6 questions] and practice [7 questions] about the etiology, types, diagnostic criteria and treatment of DM. The questionnaire was distributed amongst 219 Post-Graduate Trainees [PGT] including doctors attending courses of various specialties and General Duty Medical Officers [GDMOs] attending basic medical administration courses and 279 Under-Graduate Medical Students [UGS]. The questionnaire was required to be filled within 20 minutes during routine classes of instruction. These students were not informed about this quiz prior to these sessions. Students were instructed not to show their identity on the questionnaire except their specialty. On the basis of Mean Score i.e. mean of correct answers, there was no significant difference amongst various groups [p=0.46]; however, PGT of General Medicine, Paediatrics and sub-specialties of Pathology obtained the highest Mean Score. Similarly Mean Score of UGS of two medical colleges were not significantly different [p = 0.34]. Questions regarding knowledge were answered best by all groups followed by questions on attitude and practice. In our doctors and medical students knowledge is fairly evidence based but practice and attitude need improvement