Objective: The study aimed to determine cardiovascular risk awareness and related factors in patients with diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted between March 15, 2025, and December 2, 2025, using a mixed-methods design (descriptive, correlational, and phenomenological). A total of 154 patients participated in the quantitative phase, and 12 patients participated in the qualitative phase. The “Patient Information Form, Cardiovascular Risk Awareness Scale, and Semi-Structured Interview Form” were used for data collection. The study was conducted in two parts: a questionnaire was administered in the first, and interviews were conducted in the second. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. SPSS 25 was used for the analysis of quantitative data, and MAXQDA 24 was used for the study of qualitative findings. Results: The average cardiovascular risk awareness of the patients was 29.88±7.03. According to regression analysis, the independent variables predicted cardiovascular risk awareness with 21.5 percent accuracy (F = 6.982, p 0.001). Cardiovascular risk awareness was directly affected by gender, occupation, marital status, treatment compliance, smoking, and exercise or walking (p 0.005). The qualitative findings consisted of the main theme “disease management” and the subthemes “awareness, lack of knowledge, and fatalism.” Conclusion: The cardiovascular risk awareness of the patients was low. Individual factors significantly affected awareness. Eliminating patients’ lack of knowledge may increase their understanding and prevent fatalistic tendencies.
Soylu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.