AWARENESS REGARDING DIABETES MELLITUS AND ITS MANAGEMENT AMONGST PATIENTS ADMITTED TO A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL OF PAKISTAN.

Objectives: To find out awareness regarding Diabetes Mellitus and its management amongst patients admitted to a tertiary care teaching hospital of Peshawar Material and Method: The study was conducted at Khyber Teaching Hospital and completed in 06 months' time. Non-Random Consecutive sampling technique was used for the collection of data. The survey was conducted as a cross-sectional study using questionnaires to guide the interview-based data collection from the patients. A pre tested questionnaire was used for data collection. Verbal consent was taken from the patients and data collected while respecting the anonymity of the individual participants. According to the recent data of prevalence of diabetes in Pakistan, the sample size was calculated to be 275 for the study. For the analysis of data SPSS version 23.0 was used. The Chi square test was used for significance testing of variables. Results: A total of 275 interviews were conducted. Out of 275 who responded, 87.6% of the patients were suffering from Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus while 10.5% and 1.8% of the patients were suffering from Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus respectively. Around 55% of the patients had poor knowledge about the disease. Almost 50.9% participants were unaware about the importance of regular glycemic monitoring, 27.3% knew about HbA1c and its importance while 64.7% and 72.7% of the patient were unaware of recommended fasting and random blood glucose levels respectively. Approximately 48.7% of the participants were of the view that insulin is the end stage drug for diabetics and it in itself damages vital organs of the body. Conclusion: The awareness of Diabetes and its complications is very low among the diabetic patients of Peshawar. Their awareness is crucial for us to control the increasing trends of the disease and its complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]