An Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine metabolic disorder whereas Diabetic retinopathy is a major complication of diabetes. Diabetes occurs due to defect in insulin secretion, action, or both which in turn leads to chronic hyperglycemia with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism and is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of different organs (eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels). DR is a progressive alteration in the microvasculature that lead to retinal ischemia, altered retinal permeability, neovascularisation, macular edema.

Methods and Materials: It was a prospective cross-sectional study, which was carried out over a period of 6 months (December-2020 to May-2021). The knowledge, attitude and practice were assessed in diabetic patients on diabetes and diabetic retinopathy by using questionnaires. A total of 362 diabetic patients are included in this study. The completed questionnaires were collected and analysed using SPSS software (version 19) and results were expressed in percentages.

Results and Discussion: In the study, majority of the patient were male and in the age group of 46-55 years. Patients had good knowledge on diabetes when compared to diabetic retinopathy, positive attitude was seen towards diabetes than diabetic retinopathy and good practice patterns were observed in diabetes retinopathy than diabetes.

Conclusion: Our study concluded that the patients had good knowledge on about diabetes and a very poor knowledge on diabetic retinopathy. Positive attitude was seen in diabetes than diabetic retinopathy where as good practice patterns was seen in diabetic retinopathy than diabetes patients.