Assessment of Diabetic Patient Perception on Diabetic Disease and Self-Care Practice in Dilla University Referral Hospital, South Ethiopia

Background: Diabetes is a chronic and irreversible disease that lasts, lifelong, directly concerns any individual of all ages and their relatives, and brings heavy economic burden, affects self-care activities and shortens life expectancy due to the chronic damages it causes, Thus, before considering any possible intervention it was imperative to assess present knowledge, perception, and self-care practices of patients towards the management of diabetes. Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study supplemented by using both quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted from April – June 2013 in Dilla referral hospital. A total of 310 participants with Diabetes Mellitus were interviewed. Face-to-face interviews were used for quantitative data; and qualitative data were collected by in-depth interview. SPSS version 20 was used to perform descriptive and logistic regression analyses. Statistical significance was set at P-value <0.05 to judge the association. Result: Two third, 238 (76.8) of them had good practiced on the recommended self-care practices. Among the recommended self-care behaviors, drug adherence 289 (93.2%), dietary intake 154 (49.7%) and regular exercise 138 (44.5%) were the most practiced self-care. Self-blood glucose monitoring was the least practiced which accounted 62 (20%). Approximately 78 % of diabetic patients were developed positive perception towards DM and has a significant effect for patients with diabetes to provide own self-care practice [OR-2.74, 95% CI (1.27, 5.91)]. Majority 79.4% of the respondents were knowledgeable about diabetes, but those diabetic patients who were knowledgeable on DM were less likely performed recommended self-care to manage the disease [OR-0.29, 95% CI (0.10, 0.80)]. On other hand those diabetic patients who were knowledgeable on DM self-care were more likely performed recommended self-care [OR-6.52, 95% CI (2.88, 14.78)]. Education also has a significant effect for patients with diabetes in their own self-care practice. A major point to address therefore is regular access to/contact with diabetic educators which currently is severely substandard. Conclusions: Management of diabetes may be enhanced by reinforcing patients’ knowledge, developing positive perception and encouraging behavior change whilst taking into consideration patients’ backgrounds. To increase the self-care behavior, the health care team should be utilizing a patient-centered approach in order to deliver diabetes messages on specific issues of management practice.