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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION AND CLINICAL INVESTIGATIONand booked) and presence of studentduring the consultation.ResultsThe study included 310 type-2diabetics. The total number offemales was 201 (65%), while thatof males was 109 (35%). The meanenablement score was 3.6±1.6(range from 1 to 7) while the meanduration of consultation was 10±4.2minutes (range from 5 to 20).Table 1 illustrates that femalepatients were significantly older(55.03±6.96 years) than malepatients (55.70±5.94 years). Theconsultation of female patients wassignificantly longer than that ofthe males. On the other hand thedifferences between female and malepatients were insignificant regardingenablement.Table 2 illustrates that after theconsultation, the majority (92%)of patients were able to helpthemselves better or much betterthan before. Also, 68% of them weremore confident about their health.However, a big proportion of patientshad the same or less ability to copewith their illness (88%) and life(72%).Patient’s age over 60 wasassociated with high enablementand long consultations, andconsultations for women lastedlonger than those for men. Bookedconsultations were significantlylonger than routine consultations.Knowing the doctor well resulted inconsiderably increased duration ofthe consultation. On the other handknowing the doctor had no significanteffect on enablement. Interruptionsincreased non-significantlyconsultations by an average of 1.4minutes but significantly reducedenablement. The presence oftrainees in the consultation roomdid not affect the duration of theconsultation but significantlyincreased enablement (Table 3 - nextpage).All dependent variables included inthe model except sex were found tohave significant linear associationswith enablement. Knowing thedoctor well was found to have a highsignificant linear association withenablement when it was included inthe regression model (Table 4 - nextpage).DiscussionThe study included 310 type-2diabetics. The total number offemales was 201 (65%), whilethat of males was 109 (35%). Thefemale patients were significantlyolder (55.03±6.96 years) thanmale patients (55.70±5.94 years).The purpose of our study was tomeasure enablement and to identifyits principal correlates. After theconsultation the majority of patientswere able to help themselves betteror much better than before (92%) and68% of them were more confidentabout their health. However, a bigproportion of patients had the sameor less ability to cope with theirillness (88%) and life (72%).The differences in outcome andduration of consultation were relatedto age and sex of patients, to beingadded to clinic sessions withouthaving appointments, and to havinga consultation that was interrupted.As with any outcome measure itis hard to know whether reportedenablement reflects true enablement.The desire to please a familiardoctor and differences betweensocioeconomic factors could createartificial differences.*, mean and standard deviation in parenthesisTable 1: Distribution of the study group by age, duration of consultations and enablement scores*Table 2: Patients’ responses to consultation enablement itemsMIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE VOLUME 10 ISSUE 7MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 10 21