Volume :

2

Issue :

3

Abstract :

Objective To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of diabetes mellitus among the public of different age, gender, ethnic origin, and highest level of education and to identify the level of awareness of diabetes mellitus among the public. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2012 to February 2013 to evaluate the level of public awareness along with their knowledge, attitude and practice towards diabetes mellitus. 400 participants aged 12 and above were randomly selected and were asked to participate in this study. They were required to answer a predesigned questionnaire regarding their socio demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practices related to diabetes mellitus. Results The results revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in the mean knowledge of respondents with different age ranges and different ethnic origin but there were no significant difference in the knowledge among different gender and highest education level. Out of 400 respondents, 284 respondents which are 71% knew that diabetes mellitus is a condition characterized by raised blood sugar. As for the complications, kidney disease, foot problems and eye disease was found to be the three highest complications at 62.3%, 61.3% and 48.9% respectively. Conclusion Age and highest level of education were found to be the predominant predictive factors in most of the respondents whereas the gender of respondents did not affect the findings of this study. The results also revealed that the awareness of the public regarding diabetes mellitus is reasonably good except for some sections that needed to be given more concern such as on the eye care. An improved and well structured educational programmes that will encounter the areas of weaknesses should be recommended to increase the level of public knowledge, attitude and practice along with public awareness of diabetes mellitus.