COMPARISON OF DIABETES MELLITUS KNOWLEDGE AND SUGAR CONSUMPTION AMONG HEALTH AND NON-HEALTH STUDENTS IN MEDAN CITY.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a long-term disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or the body cannot use insulin effectively. In general, an increased understanding of diabetes mellitus and sugar consumption patterns among students is essential to prevent this disease in the future. This study aimed to describe the level of knowledge of diabetes mellitus and sugar consumption patterns among health and non-health students in Medan City. This descriptive study was conducted in four different universities, with a population of students from health and non-health study programs who were willing to be respondents and were not on leave. One hundred one students were recruited as research respondents representing the four universities. Data was collected through Google Forms in October 2024, and then, based on the scores obtained, they were classified into the categories of excellent (85-100), good (65-84.9), less good (40-64.9), and poor (<40). The results showed that the majority of health students had a good level of DM knowledge (49.0%), the majority of non-health students had a poor level of DM knowledge (46%), and the majority of respondents consumed ice cream (43.6%) and tea (37.6%). This study concludes that health students have a better level of DM knowledge than non-health students