Publication:

Self-care practices among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in rural India

Background The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has been increasing all over the world in past 30 years, particularly in the Indian subcontinent with an estimated 87% diabetic population within the age group 20-70 years. The increase in severity of diabetes every year has been linked to patient’s lack of knowledge and practice of self-care. Hence educating the population as well as assessing their self-care practices has become important.

Methods A cross-sectional study with 253 participants was done using the diabetic self-management questionnaire (DSMQ). Socio demographic details were also collected along with the questionnaire. The questionnaire was scored reversing the negatively worded questions (with a minimum score of 10 to maximum score of 34) and the p values and Pearson’s correlation was used to determine the significance of factors like age and gender with self-care practices.

Results Among 253 subjects, 117 (46.2%) participants felt that their self-care practices were poor to a ‘considerable extent’, hence the self-care practices of type 2 DM in rural population was poor and factors like age and gender didn’t show any significance in overall self-care of type 2 DM.

Conclusions The self-care practices of type 2 DM patients in rural area is poor. Age and gender had no significance in the self-care practices of type 2 DM patients. Hence awareness programs should be done in order to educate the rural population about the importance of self-care in dealing with the complications of diabetes.