Immediate impact of a diabetes training programme for primary care physicians--an endeavour for national capacity building for diabetes management in India.
OBJECTIVE
India faces a huge burden from diabetes. National capacity for management of diabetes has to be strengthened by improving knowledge of physicians treating diabetes, especially in semi urban and rural areas. A training programme was formulated and conducted at national level, as a step towards this goal.


METHODS
Physicians from 6 states of India (n=3023, M:F 2311:712), aged 30-55 years, with service of >or=3 years, (government n=1720, private n=1303, semi urban and rural areas (n=1581:1442)) were trained in diabetes care in 5-day workshops between March 2004 to December 2006. Impact of training was assessed by pre- and post-training knowledge scores, feedback on usefulness of training modules, prioritizing activities to be introduced in their practice and methods to be used for raising public awareness on diabetes.


RESULTS
The training significantly improved knowledge on treatment, complications, pathophysiology and diagnosis of diabetes (p<0.001). The participants considered information on preventive aspects of diabetes and foot care as highly educative. Patient education and team-training were considered important in diabetes management. Interest was evinced in raising public awareness about the disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Well-planned short training programmes are useful in improving knowledge and in creating enthusiasm to improve diabetes care and awareness.
Murugesan
N
N
India Diabetes Research Foundation, Egmore, Chennai 600008, India.
Shobana
R
R
Snehalatha
C
C
Kapur
Anil
A
Ramachandran
A
A
D000328:Adult; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration*