Background: Diabetes is a major cause of morbidity globally. Risk factors for diabetes are either modifiable or non-modifiable. Prevention or controlling of these risk factors can reduce the incidence of diabetes or at least minimize the risk of complications. Therefore, the knowledge about these risk factors and diabetes complications is crucial. This survey analysis aims to explore the level of knowledge among adult males and females in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia toward risk factors of diabetes and diabetes complications.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional, qualitative prospective study that was carried out in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A self-administered structured questionnaire was distributed electronically among adult males and females. Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) IBM Corp, Armonk, NY was used to perform all statistical calculations, version 21 for Microsoft Windows.
Results: A total of 321 participants responded to this survey. The maximum achieved score was 18, while the minimum score was 2, while the average score for knowledge questions was (5.84 ± 2.967). Also, there was a significant difference in average total score over different educational levels (p-value < 0.001), where those with postgraduate degrees had a higher average score (7.32) compared to other educational levels. Furthermore, employed responders showed a significantly better score (6.17), and patients who have regular visits with their doctors had significantly higher scores (6.56) (p-value = 0.018).
Conclusion: The level of knowledge of the Saudi population toward diabetes and its complications is considered unsatisfactory. Further studies are needed to find correlations between the incidence of diabetes complications and the level of knowledge of patients towards diabetes and the reasons for developing complications.
Key words: Diabetic patient, diabetes mellitus, diabetes complications, diabetes risk factors
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