Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among Middle-Aged and Elderly People in District Narowal, Pakistan

Type 2 diabetes affected 95% of people in Pakistan and rest of the globe. Diabetics increase is approximately to 69.9 million from 40.9 million by 2025 unless preventive measures are taken. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding obesity and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among middle-aged and elderly people in District Narowal, Pakistan. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from December 2022 to May 2023. Simple random sampling was used for the selection of diabetic patients. Socio-demographic information, diabetes-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices were gathered using semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire after taking verbal informed consent. Following analysis, appropriate tests were performed on the data using SPSS version 25.0. Results: Out of 300 patients, 241 (80.33%) were overweight or obese. The mean knowledge score was 21.51 ± 6.13 for men and 20.57 ± 6.29 for women. Attitude scores averaged 35.96 ± 14.33 for men and 33.55 ± 14.03 for women. Practice scores were 17.06 for men and 4.53 ± 4.72 for women. No significant differences were found between weight groups in knowledge (2,297) = 1.72, p-value > 0.18, attitude, or practices. Conclusion: The low evaluations for the same suggested that the survey participants' attitudes, knowledge, and practices toward diabetes were deemed inadequate.