STUDY ON KAP OF OCULAR COMPLICATIONS DUE TO DIABETES AMONG TYPE II DIABETICS VISITING A TERTIARY TEACHING HOSPITAL

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem worldwide. Diabetic patients are at risk of developing blindness from diabetic retinopathy. While occurrence of diabetic retinopathy cannot be prevented, its complications can be minimized. This requires awareness of the sight-threatening potential of diabetes and the need for regular eye examinations. Aim: To study the knowledge of ocular complications of diabetes, among type II diabetics visiting a tertiary level hospital. Settings and Design: This was a prospective study in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods and Material: This was a questionnaire based study on 350 type II diabetics. All patients were interviewed by the same investigator. Statistical analysis used: The data was analysed using chi square test. Results: With increase in the duration of illness, the awareness about diabetic retinopathy is more. Even though the awareness of the disease increased with increasing duration of the disease, 51.4% of the diabetics did not know how diabetes can affect the eye, 49.7% of diabetics did not know if diabetic retinopathy can be treated and 67.4% had not heard of any treatment modality for diabetic retinopathy. This shows that lack of knowledge about the disease was significant. Conclusions: Prevention of non-communicable disease through increased awareness needs to be the thrust of the effort in resource poor contexts, where the treatment can be prohibitively costly. These measures would help to bring about more awareness and understanding about the disease among the patients and therefore prevent sight-threatening complications by timely intervention and management.