Association of diabetes knowledge with glycemic control and self-care practices among Pakistani people with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Objective

This study explored the relationship of disease knowledge with glycemic control and self-care practices in adult Pakistani people diabetes (PWD).

Methods

People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (n=218) were selected from three health care centers, located in different cities of Pakistan. Disease knowledge and self-care practices were assessed by Urdu versions of Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) and Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ), using a cross-sectional design. Chi-square and correlation analysis were applied to explore the relationship of disease knowledge with glycemic control and self-care practices. Linear regression was used to explore the predictors for disease knowledge.

Results

Majority of the sample was >45–60 years old (48.8%), suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus for <5 years (49.5%) and had poor glycemic control (HbA1C≥7%; n=181 participants). Disease knowledge was significantly associated (p<0.05) with patient’s gender, level of education, family history of diabetes, nature of euglycemic therapy, and glycemic control. Correlation matrix showed strongly inverse correlations of DKQ with glycated hemoglobin levels (r=−0.62; p<0.001) and strongly positive with DSMQ sum scale (r=0.63; p<0.001). PWD having university-level education (β=0.22; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.189, 0.872; p<0.01), doing job (β=0.22; 95% CI 0.009, 0.908]; p=0.046), and use of oral hypoglycemic agents in combination with insulin (β=−0.16; 95% CI [−1.224, −0.071]; p=0.028) were the significant predictors for disease knowledge.

Conclusion

Disease knowledge significantly correlated with glycated hemoglobin levels and self-care activities of PWD. These findings will help in designing patient-tailored diabetes educational interventions for yielding a higher probability of achieving target glycemic control.

Keywords:

• knowledge
• glycated hemoglobin
• self-management
• glycemic control
• HbA1c

Acknowledgments

AB gratefully acknowledges Monash University for providing a PhD Merit Scholarship. KGC thanks the University of Malaya for grantd (PG136-2016A and PG135-2016A). GBH thanks Monash Global Asia in the Twenty-First Century (GA21) for research grants (GA-HW-19-L01 and GA-HW-19-501) and the External Industry Grant from Biotek Abadi Sdn Bhd (vote no. GBA-81811A).

Diabetes questionnaire links

Diabetes Self-management Questionnaire (Urdu Version) is available online at: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1186%2Fs12955-017-0776-8/MediaObjects/12955_2017_776_MOESM2_ESM.pdf. Diabetes Self-management Questionnaire (English version) is available online at: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1186%2Fs12955-017-0776-8/MediaObjects/12955_2017_776_MOESM1_ESM.pdf. Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (Urdu version) is available online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/274955/fpubh-05-00139-HTML/image_m/fpubh-05-00139-at001.jpg.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.