Diabetes and its complications; Knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) and their determinants in Pakistani people with type 2 diabetes

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) regarding diabetes and its associated complications in people with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology (BIDE), Baqai Medical University (BMU), Karachi, Pakistan. The duration of the study was from January 2019 to June 2019. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of BIDE. People with type 2 diabetes aged older than 25 years, with more than two years' duration of diabetes were included. A self-structured questionnaire was designed to assess KAP. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 53.14 +/- 11.62 years, and the mean duration of diabetes was 10.76 +/- 7.65 years. Knowledge and attitude showed higher mean percentage scores of 85.5% and 88.6% as compared with a practice score of 40.7%, which revealed good knowledge and attitude of the participants and poor practice. Education showed a significant association with knowledge and attitude, triglyceride level toward knowledge, LDL-C level toward practice, and HDL-C level toward knowledge and practice. Conclusion: A good knowledge and attitude score of the participants toward diabetes but a poor practice score was found. Individualized programs as well as group education programs still needed to be planned to enable better prevention and management techniques in diabetes. Behavioral therapy and counseling should be considered as a priority in subjects with low practice.