Download Booklet - Diabetes in Asia Study Group

Introduction
health education of diabetics is not a new concept as self-monitoring of glucosuria had been
recommended by the french physician bouchardar in 1875 to follow the success of their diet and
exercise-based therapy. as early as the 1920s, systematic efforts were made to establish diabetes
education programs for training of insulin-treated patients. Moffitt (1979) has proven the efficacy
of diabetes teaching and treatment programs in reducing the frequency of acute metabolic
deterioration and their sequelae on a large scale.
the importance of patient education concerning the prevention of acute complications has gained
such a degree of public approval that an increasing number of cases have become recently known
in which physicians have been sentenced for not having formally informed and educated their
patients about the potential risks of insulin treatment (Davidson et al, 1981 and Assal, 1985).
an important factor, which has facilitated the gain of support for patient education, is the concern
of public health authorities over the exploding costs of patient care. it is most obvious that
diabetes teaching and treatment programs represent extremely cost-effective element in the care
of diabetes mellitus (Jonsson, 1983).
health education for diabetics has three main pillars on which any educational program should be
depended upon, these are: knowledge, skills and attitude.
successful management of diabetes requires high degree of patient participation. this can be
achieved by the administration of Diabetes self-Management education (DsMe) which is the
cornerstone of treatment for all diabetic patients. DsMe is the process of providing persons with
diabetes with the knowledge and skills to perform self care on a day-to-day basis. thus, study of
knowledge, skills and attitudes of diabetics towards their disease is considered a basic first step in
the education process.
the aim of the present study was the assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes of diabetics in
an upper egyptian locality which will help in constructing feasible health education programs.
Patients and Methods
this study is a cross sectional descriptive one using questioning method to asses knowledge, skills
and attitudes of diabetics towards their disease in upper egypt. it included 200 diabetics attending
sohag City hospitals. Data were collected over a period of 6 months from January to June 2006.
a questionnaire sheet was used; which included:
1) socio-demographic characteristics: as age, sex, residence, marital status, number of children,
occupation, education and income.
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