Abstract
Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. It is a public health disorder that results in complications if proper control is not applied.
Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and level of diabetes control in diabetes patients attending the Consultant Endocrinologist outpatient clinic of Federal Teaching Hospital Owerri, Nigeria.
Methods: The number of patients recruited for this study was 102. The study was a cross-sectional, observational and prospective research that used a well-structured and pretested questionnaire, Electronic patients' record of the hospital and a Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT) kit (a valid, reliable and authenticated instrument for assessing and measuring the diabetic Knowledge of patients). This kit was developed by the University of Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Centre.
Results: Males were the most respondents 56(54.9%). The married patients 78(76.5%) while 39(38.2%) of the population had higher education certificates. The patients were more public servants than others while most of them earned N80,000 monthly salary. The major risk factor was a family history of diabetes 55(53.92%) and a marginal number of patients were never trained in diabetes knowledge 51(50%). A large number of the patients neither drink alcohol 80(78.43%) nor smoke tobacco 93(92.16%). The fasting blood sugar of the patient above normal was 53(51.96%) for males and 45(44.12) for female respondents. Males were more overweight (BMI=18.5-24.9kg/m2
) 31(30.39%) than the females 22(21.57%) and poor control led to some complications like neuropathy, retinopathy, hypertension, and nephropathy, to mention a few.
Conclusion: While the knowledge of respondents on diabetes mellitus was remarkable, various risk factors were not considered for effective control and these were noted as reasons for poor control.
Keywords: Evaluation, Diabetes mellitus control, Consultant endocrinologist, Outpatient clinic, Federal Teaching Hospital.