Examination of Diabetes Awareness Levels in Patients with Type II Diabetes

Objectives: : This study was conducted to determine the level of diabetes awareness in patients with type 2 diabetes and to examine the individual and disease characteristics that affect it. Methods: In the descriptive study, data were collected from patients who applied to the internal medicine outpatient clinic of a private branch state hospital, which was selected according to the purposive sampling method. The data were collected from 252 type 2 diabetes patients whose population was calculated according to the known sample calculation formula, who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Individual and disease characteristic questionnaire consisting of 25 questions and type 2 diabetes knowledge/ awareness level questionnaire were used to collect the data. Percentage, analysis of variance, and post hoc tests were used in the statistical analysis of the data. Results: The mean age of the individuals participating in the study was 68 ± 5, 48.4% of them were between 50 and 79 years of age, 52.4% were male, 41.64% were illiterate, 21% had low income, It was determined that 31.7% of them had diabetes for less than a year, 34.7% had a hemoglobin A1C value higher than 8, and 25.3% had been using insulin for 6–9 years. It was found that 38.5% of the participants had no awareness of type 2 diabetes. Significant differences were found between type 2 diabetes knowledge/awareness questionnaire level mean scores and gender, age, income status, educational status, body mass index, daily physical activity, smoking, and disease characteristics. Conclusion: It was found that 38.5% of the participants with type 2 diabetes were not aware of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes awareness levels were found to be higher among women, university graduates, those who are thin, those who do physical activity, those who do not smoke, those who have chronic diabetes complications, those who received diabetes education in the last year, and those who have diabetes mellitus for