ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the type of diabetic instruction (reading materials, talks and/or courses) received by a group of diabetics in relation to a series of personal variables such as gender, age, education, type of diabetes mellitus, length of time ill and type of treatment. DESIGN: This was an observation study. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire filled in at a personal interview with the patients. SETTING: Out-patient hospital endocrinology clinics. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: 520 diabetic patients monitored in the out-patient clinics were selected at random. 35 were excluded because of their hearing, linguistic or psychological deficiencies. Only one patient refused to answer the questionnaire. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: It was found that 63.07% of the patients surveyed had not done any reading or attended a course of diabetes training; 16.73% had been instructed through reading material and the remaining 20.19% had attended organised talks and/or courses about their illness. Additionally, there was statistically significant dependence between the kind of training received and patients' age (p < 0.001), educational level (p < 0.0001), the type of diabetes mellitus (p < 0.001), the length of time ill (p < 0.001) and the kind of treatment (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In general the diabetic patients studied were found to have a deficient level of training. Therefore it is extremely important to organise talks and/or educational courses on their condition with the aim of raising their level of understanding and thus improve their control of the illness.
