Pre-Existing Knowledge and Self-Reported Barriers to uptake Eye Care among Type-1 Diabetic Patients attending a City Diabetic Hospital at Southern Bangladesh

Abstract

Purpose: To find out the knowledge about diabetic complication of eye & the barriers to uptake of diabetic eye care among Type-1 diabetic patients. Method: This is a hospital based observational case series of 100 cases of Type-1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM1). Demographic data, knowledge about diabetic complication of eye, self reported barriers to uptake diabetes eye health service were collected by face-to-face interview. Interview was done on a formulated questionnaire including pre-existing knowledge about diabetes related ocular problems and factors act as a barrier to receive eye care. All DM1 patients attending in a city diabetic hospital during one year (from October 2017 to September 2018) period were included. Written consent was taken. Patients refuse to give consent & aged more than 30 years were excluded. Results: The mean age of participants was (17.09 ± 3.92) years with range 6 to 23 years and 57% of them were female. About 59 % subjects were students. Around 50% of the respondent had knowledge about the adverse effect of diabetes on eyes, among them only 6% had knowledge about retina problems and 3% knew that blindness may happen. Only 32% of study population gave answer about the reason behind not seeking diabetic eye care and the most common (12%) answer was “not feeling necessity of eye care”. Conclusion: DM1 patients are more prone to systemic and ocular morbidity. The main reasons for not getting eye care services was lacks of awareness. Increase awareness building program can bring them to the eye health service which will very important to reduce diabetic ocular morbidity of young people who have long life in front of them.