KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE ABOUT DIABETIC RETINOPATHY AMONG ADULT DIABETIC PATIENTS VISITING St. PAULS HOSPITAL MILLENIUM MEDICAL COLLEGE DIABETIC CLINIC, ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the microvascular complications of Diabetes mellitus (DM) and it is the leading cause of blindness worldwide in the age range of 20 to 64.For this reason Patients who are diagnosed to have diabetes mellitus should have regular ocular examination. Ethiopia is included among the top five countries from Sub Saharan Africa with the highest number of DM patients Objective: The main aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards diabetic retinopathy among adult diabetic patients visiting St.Paul’s hospital millennium medical college diabetic clinic from December 2018 to June 2019 Methods: hospital based cross sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of diabetic patients towards diabetic retinopathy.408 diabetic patients above the age of 18 years was included in this study and they were selected by systematic random sampling technique, every 14th patient visiting DM clinic, was included. Structured, pre-tested questionnaire which was adopted from a study which was done at Jimma University tertiary hospital was used and the collected data was entered, processed and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Quality of data was assured by giving training for the data collectors and by supervising the process Results: Most of the study participants (95.9) knew that diabetes can cause damage to the eye. Most of the patients got information from diabetes clinic (64.8%). The other sources of information were ophthalmologist in 14.7%, relatives/friends in 6.1%, and media in 5.5%. Only 15.2% knew the type of eye disease caused by diabetes is retinopathy, only 12.4% knew eye disease in diabetes is caused by injury to retinal blood vessel. Most of the patients had positive attitude towards diabetic retinopathy. At least one ophthalmologic evaluation after the diagnosis of diabetes was done for 82.2% of the patient but only 51.2% of the total and 64.3% from those who had previous ophthalmic evaluation had funduscopic evaluation. Only 17.3% reported they do regular exercise, and 16.8% reported they consume diabetic diets the variables which had significant association with knowledge about diabetic retinopathy were educational status and source of information Conclusion: In contrast to the general awareness about diabetes related eye injury by most of the patients, knowledge on the specific aspects of diabetic retinopathy was very limited. 10 Information about DM and DR should be utilized from DM clinic, media. Since this are the sources which can cover wider part of the society. Physicians who are evaluating DM patients should create awareness about DR and other DM related complications and they also should send patients for routine ophthalmic evaluation.