Self-care activities among patients with diabetes attending a tertiary care hospital in mangalore karnataka, India.
BACKGROUND
Increasing prevalence of diabetes in India is resulting in an epidemiological transition. The care of the people with diabetes is traditionally seen as doctor centered, but the concept of self-care of people with diabetes is a new domain and is proven beneficial.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to determine the practice of self-care activities among people with diabetes attending a tertiary care hospital in Mangalore.


METHODS
A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Government Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore during September-October 2012. A total of 290 patients with >1-year duration of diabetes mellitus (DM) were asked to respond to summary diabetes self-care activities questionnaire after obtaining the consent from them. The statistical analysis was performed in terms of descriptive statistics and association between the variables was tested using Mann-Whitney U-test.


RESULTS
A healthy eating plan on a daily basis was followed by 45.9% (133/290) of the participants, daily exercises for 30 min were followed by 43.4% (126/290), and regular blood sugar monitoring was done by 76.6% (222/290). Regarding the adherence to oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin, daily adherence to medication was seen among 60.5% (155/256) and 66.9% (138/206) were found to be adherent to insulin injections on a daily basis.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-care practices were found to be unsatisfactory in almost all aspects except for blood sugar monitoring and treatment adherence. As these practices are essential for prevention of complications and better quality-of -life, more efforts should be put to educate the people with diabetes.
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
D
D
Rajasekharan
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
V
V
Kulkarni
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
B
B
Unnikrishnan
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
N
N
Kumar
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
R
R
Holla
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Affiliated to Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
R
R
Thapar
Cross-sectional studies; Diabetes mellitus; India; Self-care