A Study on Assessment of Knowledge of Diabetes In Diabetic Patients And Patient Counseling In A Teaching Hospital

Knowledge of Diabetes is an integral component for attaining optimal disease control, and reduce mortality. Patient counseling by Pharmacist would motivate the patients to attain better understanding of their Disease, its treatment and helps them to adopt healthy life style to avoid future complications. Assessment of Diabetes Knowledge in Diabetic Patients and Patient Counseling. A Cross sectional survey study was carried out over 6 months with 305 Diabetic patients in General Medicine department of Owaisi Hospital and Research centre, Hyderabad, India. A questionnaire consisting Demographic details and 21 questions relating to the patients’ knowledge of Diabetes was provided to the participants. The patients were later counseled by using Patient Information Leaflet. The results were expressed as Mean, Standard deviation and in number (%). MS Excel spread sheet have been used to generate graphs, Tables etc. Of the 305 patients 45% were male and 55% were female with a mean age of 55.52±6.9 years (range 20 to 80). About 59.3% of patients had positive family history, 65.9% of participants did not know what diabetes was. 63.5% of people thought mental stress to be the only cause for diabetes and 81.3% of subjects never received patient counseling. Study subjects showed knowledge deficits pertaining to causes, prevention and Medications used in Diabetes and very less number of patients received Counseling. These results highlight the need for educational programmes aimed at improving the knowledge of DM patients.