Department of Surgery, Tamale West Hospital, Tamale, Ghana.
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0241424. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241424. eCollection 2020.
Diabetes mellitus is a complex disease that affects many organ systems, leading to concerns about deteriorating population health status and ever-increasing healthcare expenditure. Many people with diabetes do not achieve optimal glycaemic control and other metabolic indices, leading to a heightened risk of developing complications. Adequate knowledge of diabetes complications is a prerequisite for risk-factor reduction and prevention of the consequences of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of chronic complications of diabetes among persons living with type 2 diabetes mellitus in northern Ghana.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 320 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in northern Ghana. The consecutive sampling technique was employed to recruit participants from September to November 2018. Data analysis was performed using IBM statistical package for social science version 23. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were employed to determine associations between knowledge of diabetes complications and demographic/clinical characteristics of participants, at 95% confidence interval with statistical significance at P<0.05.
The majority of participants (54.1%) had inadequate knowledge and 45.9% had adequate knowledge of diabetes complications. The factors associated with inadequate level of knowledge were female gender [AOR = 0.29 (95%CI: 0.14-0.56), p<0.001], older age [AOR = 0.45 (95%CI:0.20-0.99), p = 0.049], primary education [AOR = 0.13 (95%CI: 0.03-0.51), p = 0.004], no formal education [AOR = 0.16 (95%CI: 0.05-0.50), p = 0.002], rural dwellers [AOR = 0.50 (95%CI: 0.27-0.95), p = 0.033] and unknown family history diabetes [AOR = 0.38 (95%CI: 0.17-0.82), p = 0.014].
More than half of the studied population had inadequate knowledge of diabetes complications. Female gender, rural dwellers, and low education level were factors positively associated with inadequate knowledge of diabetes complications. A multisectoral approach is needed, where the government of Ghana together with other sectors of the economy such as the health, education and local government sectors work collaboratively in the development of locally tailored diabetes education programmes to promote healthy self-care behaviours relevant for the prevention of diabetes and its complications.
糖尿病是一种影响多个器官系统的复杂疾病，导致人们对人群健康状况恶化和医疗保健支出不断增加的担忧。许多糖尿病患者无法达到理想的血糖控制和其他代谢指标，因此患并发症的风险更高。充分了解糖尿病并发症是减少危险因素和预防疾病后果的前提。因此，本研究旨在评估加纳北部 2 型糖尿病患者对慢性糖尿病并发症的认知。
这是一项在加纳北部的 320 名 2 型糖尿病患者中进行的描述性横断面研究。采用连续抽样技术，于 2018 年 9 月至 11 月招募参与者。使用 IBM 统计软件包 23 版进行数据分析。使用频率和百分比等描述性统计。采用双变量和多变量逻辑回归分析，在 95%置信区间内确定参与者的糖尿病并发症知识与人口统计学/临床特征之间的关联，具有统计学意义的 P 值<0.05。
大多数参与者（54.1%）对糖尿病并发症的了解不足，而 45.9%的参与者对糖尿病并发症的了解充足。与知识水平不足相关的因素包括女性（AOR=0.29（95%CI：0.14-0.56），p<0.001）、年龄较大（AOR=0.45（95%CI：0.20-0.99），p=0.049）、接受过小学教育（AOR=0.13（95%CI：0.03-0.51），p=0.004）、未接受过正规教育（AOR=0.16（95%CI：0.05-0.50），p=0.002）、居住在农村（AOR=0.50（95%CI：0.27-0.95），p=0.033）和未知家族糖尿病史（AOR=0.38（95%CI：0.17-0.82），p=0.014）。
超过一半的研究人群对糖尿病并发症的了解不足。女性、居住在农村地区和低教育水平是与糖尿病并发症知识不足相关的积极因素。需要采取多部门方法，加纳政府与经济的其他部门（如卫生、教育和地方政府部门）共同合作，制定适合当地的糖尿病教育计划，以促进与预防糖尿病及其并发症相关的健康自我护理行为。
