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BACKGROUND: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has increased alarmingly mainly due to the life style changes and obesity factor. Approximately 10% of the Omani population is suffering from this chronic disease and according to World Health Organization, number of subjects living with diabetes in Oman will rise from 75,000 in 2000 to 217,000 in 2025. It has been well established that data on KP of diabetic patients reveal aspects of education that need to be reinforced and addressed in order to improve diabetes management. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this cross sectional study was to assess the diabetes mellitus type 2 related knowledge and practices (KP) of Omani adult patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diabetic patients were recruited using the convenient sampling method from Outpatient diabetes clinic of various primary health care centers and private hospitals in Muscat region of Sultanate of Oman. KP of patients who agreed to participate in the study were assessed by administering a self designed questionnaire containing 15 close ended or multiple choice type questions in face-to face interviews. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: 106 patients with T2DM participated in this study (42 men and 64 women). Majority of them were; married (83%), above 50 years (64.2%), on oral hypoglycemic (56.6%), having family history of diabetes (66%). The mean ± SD knowledge score of participants was found to be 4.92 ± 1.22 out of maximum possible score of 8. CONCLUSION: Omani patients seemed aware and displayed satisfactory diabetes knowledge and good practices except adherence to regular exercise. We recommend to design and develop diabetes educational programs that could help Omani patients in diabetes management and improvement of quality of life.
Bimani et al. (Sun,) studied this question.