A survey of outpatient’s knowledge and attitude towards Diabetes Mellitus medication

Background: Diabetes is a chronic and debilitating disease which can cause macrovascular and microvascular complications. Involvement of the patient in a self management program is important in achieving good glycemic control, thus preventing complications. Knowledge of self-management is imperative to diabetics in order to make effective daily self-care decisions. A way to evaluate patient’s knowledge is by administering a written or oral evaluation. By knowing the baseline knowledge level of our patients, we are then able to give them feedback regarding their gaps in knowledge or reinforce existing knowledge. In doing so, diabetes education becomes more effective and responsive.
Objectives:
1) To measure the diabetes knowledge of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients at Malacca Hospital Out-patient Department (OPD.
2. ) To determine factors that will affect the level of knowledge including:
3. ) To accumulate the patient’s opinion concerning the ability of the pharmacist in diabetes mellitus management.
General Study Design: Cross-sectional Study. Participants were 50 diabetic patients, recruited from Out-patient Department who were willing to complete the evaluation form.
Interventions: Participants were recruited randomly for 4 months and were asked to answer a survey questionnaire. It is self administered questionnaires which were distributed by pharmacists. The questionnaire was filled by patients in a span of 15-20 minutes. Besides the Evaluation Form, information like age, sex, duration of diabetes, diabetes treatment, family history of diabetes and education level were obtained.
Statistical Analysis: To determine the current level of understanding, the over-all scores of all the participants were obtained by percent correctness, computed as participant’s score over the total number of items. Bar charts and pie charts were used and the group mean was shown.
Results: The over-all knowledge scores of the participants were only 52.6%. A total of 50 patients were enrolled in this study, all of them complete answer the questionnaire. Respondent’s age ranged from 18 to 79 years old with a mean of 54.5 years.
Conclusion: Factors that increased the patients’ knowledge include duration of diabetes and family history of diabetes. Among the factors that we can take advantage of, is the effect of health education on the patients’ knowledge. Hence, an effort should be made by the health care team to come up with a comprehensive diabetes education program that will enhance patients’ knowledge on their disease condition.