Niveen M Daoud, Mashael M Al-Otaibi, Noof M Al-Qethami
Background: Awareness of various aspects of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is essential for the prevention, management and control of the disease. Saudi Arabia is one of the most countries have the highest incidence of diabetes. To our knowledge, this was the first research evaluating the level of awareness in a diabetic population of Taif. In this study, we assessed the awareness of DM among diabetic patients attending in the hospitals and diabetes clinics, in Taif city, KSA.
Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in Taif city from December 2017 to February 2018. An attached questionnaire was filled after a personal interview, having 11 items. The correct answers were marked as aware and incorrect as unaware and made conversions to a percentage. Total 210 diabetic patients were assessed. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software.
Results: The 210 participants interviewed included 114 females and 96 males, 88 with types 1 DM while 122 with type 2. Approximately 84% of participants have previously counseled (Diabetes education), 77.1% of them have a family history of diabetes. Overall sufficient awareness regarding diabetes mellitus was reported among the majority of the participants with a significant effect of gender and type in some specific items.
Conclusion: This is the first study examining the knowledge and awareness of diabetes among the only diabetic population in KSA. Our data conducted that the diabetic population at Taif city have enough general awareness of DM regarding complication, sugar monitoring, safe fasting, life style modifications, and gestational diabetes which reflect the very well health care services provided at Taif.