Attitudes And Knowledge Of Diabetic Patients In Kirkuk Governorate

Abstract

Background : Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a very serious disease affecting people of varying age and race allover the world, it is a condition in which the body produces little or none of the hormone insulin. If leftuntreated, the blood glucose levels can rise to such a point as to cause coma or possibly even death.Objectives: To assess patient’s attitude and Knowledge with diabetes mellitus in Kirkuk governorate as wellas to find out the relationship between patients knowledge and some socio-demographic characteristic suchas age and genderMethodology: A descriptive study of a quantitative design were carried out at Azadi teaching hospital andKirkuk general hospital in Kirkuk governorate for diabetic Mellitus patients from 5th of October, 2011, up tothe 27th of March, 2012. A non-probability (purposive) sample of (100) definitely diagnosed with diabeticmellitus, selected from patients who were attended to Azadi Teaching Hospital and Kirkuk General Hospitalin Kirkuk governorate. Developed questionnaire was constructed for the purpose of the study whichconsisted of three parts: the first part include the demographic data of the respondent, the second part consistsix item to measure the attitude of respondent and the third part was contained (23) questions which assessthe knowledge of the diabetic patients. The data were collected through the use of interview. They wereanalyzed through the application of descriptive statistical analysis (frequency and percentage) and inferentialstatistical data analysis (chi-square).Results: The findings of the study indicated that (36%) of the sample Age group were (50-59) year's old,(51%) were female, (49%) were illiterate, (42%) were house wives, (66%) were married, (47%) were barelysufficient monthly income and (75%) were from urban.Conclusion: The study concluded that most of the samples had negative attitude about diabetic mellitus,most of the sample have inadequate knowledge about the disease, most of them have inadequate knowledgeregarding the treatment of diabetic mellitus. Also the study concluded that there is a highly significantrelationship between diabetic patient’s age, gender and their knowledge.