EVALUATING AND ENHANCING THE KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF DIABETIC FOOT DISEASE & RELATED COMPLICATIONS AND DIABETIC RETINOPATHY AMONG MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL STUDENTS AT AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PRAYAGRAJ, UTTAR PRADESH
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Keywords
Awareness, diabetic retinopathy, screening, diabetic foot disease, complications
Abstract
Context: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic foot disease are a major cause of varying degree of morbidity, loss to limb &/or life along with visual disability leading to irreversible blindness. Awareness and knowledge of these facts varies in the general population even among educated class like students with different educational backgrounds.
Aim: To assess the awareness of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic foot disease among students at an educational institute in Prayagraj.
Setting and Design: Cross sectional study conducted at an educational institution.
Materials and Methods: An interviewer administered, pre tested, semi structured questionnaire was used to evaluate various aspects related to the awareness of DR and diabetic foot disease.
Results: A total of 887 subjects (30.4% medical and 69.6% non-medical) were included in the study. Of the 887 subjects, 74.4% among medical group and 45.8% among non-medical group were aware about diabetic retinopathy and diabetic foot disease. The main source of information was books (52.6%) among medical students and knowledge through friends and family (40%) among those with non-medical background. Of the total 887 subjects, 341 (38.4%) had awareness about different diabetic eye and foot screening programs. Of these, 111 were medical and 230 had non-medical background.
Conclusion: Awareness of diabetic foot complications and retinopathy and knowledge regarding the need and about various screening programs was poor among students. There existed major deficits in the knowledge and behavior of students of non-medical background on such issues. There is a need to create awareness about DR and diabetic foot disease and emphasize the importance of eye and foot screening to reduce unfavorable outcomes in the form of visual disability and loss to limb &/or life.
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Dr. Swarnima Saxena
Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, United Institute of Medical Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
Dr. Akash Saxena
Assistant Professor, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, United Institute of Medical Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh