Abstract:
Objective: To compare the knowledge and practices of diabetes self- care management among type 2 diabetic patients in
two hospitals of Karachi.
Study Design and Setting: A cross sectional study was carried out at two Tertiary Care Hospital of Karachi from March
2018 to August 2018.
Methodology: A total of 120 subjects of type 2 diabetes were included in the study. Data was collected through structured
questionnaire. Knowledge regarding diabetes includes normal blood sugar level, symptoms of low and high blood sugar
and management of these symptoms. Structured questionnaire was used to collect information of sociodemographic
characteristics, knowledge and attitude of diabetes and self-care management practices. Data was analyzed by SPSS version
21. P value less than 0.05 considered as significant
Results: Majority of the participants were females (55%) and males were (45%).The duration of diabetes in majority of
participants, (43.3%) was less than 5 years. From total 53.3% of our study participants were aware about the knowledge
of diabetic complications. Approximately ,59.6% participants thought visit to eye specialist is important and about 44.16%
thought that monthly visit to hospital for general health is important for diabetic patients. When asked about early signs
of development of complications 48.3% participants thought that development of foot ulcers ,83% thought diabetes was
strongly associated with obesity. Total, 76.6% participants thought that plan of meal is important. Total, 30.83% participants
were in agreement with this thought that diabetes was strongly associated with obesity.
Conclusion: The knowledge of self-care practices in diabetic patients was average in this study.