Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives

Diabetic patients play the main role in the management of their disease. Adequate knowledge of this disease state and self directed patient care will improve the health of these patients. Some studies have indicated a high prevalence of diabetes complication are due to the lack of knowledge of self directed patient care and practice in diabetic patient group.

The objective of this study is to measure the knowledge level of self directed patient care and practice in order to evaluate their effects on improvement of diabetic patients' health in the city of Qom, Iran.

Methods

In this cross sectional study 1004 patients with diabetes participated (During year 2006). Data were collected from patients of General Hospital metabolism and endocrine research center.

An interviewing method was used to asses the demographics data, history of disease, and knowledge of self directed patient care in these patients. Data were analyzed using a descriptive statistic, chi-square, and Pearson correlation coefficient, and SPSS software.

Results

Out of 1004 observed case, 154 patients were with Diabetes type I and 850 patients with Diabetes type II. The knowledge of self directed patient care and practice level of with both types of diabetes were determined to be mostly at an intermediate level. In type I diabetic patients there was a significant relation between knowledge level of self directed patient care and gender of the patients (P=0.01). Also, there was a significant correlation between practice and age (P=0.03(, and economical status (P=0.06) of the patients. In type II diabetic patients there was a significant relation between knowledge level of self directed patient care and educational level (P=0.00(, and economical status (P=0.01) of the patients. The practice level of self directed patient care was significantly related to economical status (p=0.03) in this group of patients.

Conclusion

These results indicate that an increase in knowledge level of self directed patient care and practice in diabetic patients can significantly improve their health. So it is necessary to consider training programs for diabetic patients especially for illiterate and patients with a lower economic status.