Evaluation of awareness of diabetes mellitus and associated factors in four health center areas.
OBJECTIVE
As in all chronic diseases, providing patients with necessary information about Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and educating them are the best method of control of DM and preventing further complication. The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness of DM and related factors in diabetics.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted in four health centre areas of Ankara (n = 96,348) between 1997 and 2000. In these areas, the researches were visited every home and detected the total of 2136 diagnosed patients with DM. 62.5% of diabetics (1334) participated in the study in which a face-to-face interview was conducted to fill in a questionnaire followed by eye examination and fasting blood glucose level testing. Chi-square test and logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationships between factors.


RESULTS
Statistical analysis has shown that mean age of respondents was 57.4 +/- 10.9 years and majority were female (67.9%) and older onset DM (96.6%). Mean duration of DM was 7.8 +/- 6.5 years. Only 28.6% of patients (n = 382) have had informed about DM. The main information resource was found to be hospitals (76.4%), then media 19.1% and primary health care centers (PHCC) 3.9%. Patients who graduated from university were 13.5 times; who were under 50 years of age were 1.92 times; who have had prior eye examination were 1.84 times and who had co-morbidities were 1.52 times more likely to have informed about DM than the other groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Awareness of DM amongst diabetics is very low and mainly determined by their education levels. The PHCC play a very small role in dissemination of information towards diabetics.


CONCLUSIONS
Results from this study have implications for patient education efforts. Accurately, clinicians need to strive to improve overall levels of patients' awareness and knowledge of their specific conditions, regardless of their literacy. Many opportunities exist for raising diabetic's awareness of their disease and linking diabetic's growing health awareness with those health promoting behaviors known to reduce morbidity and mortality.
Caliskan
Deniz
D
Ankara University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Munzeviler sk No: 1 Akdere, Ankara, Turkey.
Ozdemir
Oya
O
Ocaktan
Esin
E
Idil
Aysun
A
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001364:Awareness; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003151:Community Health Centers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology