Donnah Bless B Lumanlan
Southern Philippines Medical Center, Philippines
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Introduction: Patient education is the corner stone of diabetes care. This study was conducted to determine the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and find out whether these factors are associated with glycemic control or not. Objectives: This cross-sectional analytic study aims to identify the demographic profile of the subjects and assess their level of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards Diabetes Mellitus (DM). It also aims to determine the association between the patient�??s KAP and glycemic control of DM among patients in a diabetic clinic. Methods: Type 2 DM patients were recruited using the convenient sampling method from a diabetes clinic. KAP was assessed using a KAP questionnaire which had 54-items and from which control of DM was evaluated from the most recent HbA1C levels. Results: A total of 168 patients with T2DM participated in this study, and it was found that the level among patients following up in a managed diabetes center in a tertiary hospital is adequate in achieving 56%, 66% and 91% of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices respectively. A good KAP level was observed in majority of females, who are above 60 year old, overweight, high waist-to-hip ratio, unemployed, with family history of DM, less than 10 years with diabetes, those who attended DM classes, and without smoking history. However, these results were found not to be statistically significant except for the educational attainment for the knowledge domain and the unemployment status for the practice domain. It was found that there was a strong association between knowledge and attitude, but not with knowledge and practice (P>0.05). No significant association was noted between good KAP and glycemic control and there could be other possible factors like socio-economic constraints and lack of resources to facilitate medication adherence must also be identified and addressed to achieve better disease control. Hence, this study emphasizes that providing patient education through diabetes classes and the presence of an integrated multidisciplinary team is important for enhancing patient KAP.
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