Level of Knowledge of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus About Their Disease

Abstract

Objective: to estimate the level of knowledge that patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (dm2) have about their disease. Methods: cross-sectional analytical study, 370 patients with dm2, attending the Family Medicine Unit No. 1 in Cuernavaca, Morelos of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, participated through a non-randomized sampling by convenience; a questionnaire for sociodemographic variables and the Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (dkq24) were applied to identify the level of knowledge, descriptive statistics were performed by calculating the average, standard deviation, media and frequency and analytical statistics with χ² and Student’s T with statistical significance p<0.05. Results: the average age was 61 years and women predominated with 59.19%. Regarding global knowledge about dm2, it was determined that 57.57% did not have adequate knowledge; in terms of basic knowledge 53.51% reported having adequate knowledge; 75.14% of the participants lacked adequate knowledge in relation to glycemic control. Regarding complications, 73.24% had inadequate knowledge. Glycemic decontrol was associated with inadequate knowledge (p=0.028), while analyzing other study variables there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusions: the level of knowledge about dm2 in the participants was low and was related to glycemic control; it is necessary to implement specific educational strategies in order to attenuate this problem at the Primary Care Level.