Knowledge of Diabetes Mellitus and Adherence to treatment among patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus attending a Tertiary Facility in Southern Nigeria
Abstract

Poor knowledge of DM and suboptimal level of adherence to treatment regimen remains a recurring problem among DM patients. Improving the knowledge of DM and adherence to treatment regimen would help in reducing the rate of morbidity and mortality among patients. This study was designed to assess the knowledge of Diabetes Mellitus and adherence to treatment among patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus attending Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital Okolobri, Bayelsa State Nigeria. This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted among 140 purposively selected T2DM patients. A validated questionnaire comprising socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of DM, adherence to treatment was used to collect the data. The collected data were entered into IBM SPSS 17.0 and were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with level of significance set at 0.05. The result shows majority of the respondents were females 74(59.2%) and 42(33.6%) were in age group 45-49 years. Majority, of the respondents 78(62.4%) defined DM as a chronic disease in which blood glucose is too high while 81(64.8%) erroneously affirmed that DM could be cured and 99(79.2%) affirmed not to know the symptoms of DM. Only 58(46.4%) of the respondents strictly adhered to treatment and significant socio-demographic predictors of strict adherence to treatment were female (AOR=2.347 95% CI 1.132-4.866), elderly 60-64 (AOR=5.833 95% CI 1.119-30.403), and married (AOR=7.917 95% CI 1.582-39.610). The study showed poor knowledge and suboptimal adherence to treatment among the study participants. Therefore strategies for improving the knowledge of DM and adherence to treatment should be prioritised by the health care system

PDF

Select your language of interest to view the total content in your interested language

Latest issues

To read the issue click on a cover