Endocrine Abstracts

Relevance: Patients with diabetes are not always sufficiently informed about disease, approaches to its treatment, and the need to prevent complications.

Purpose: To evaluate the awareness of patients about diabetes in inpatient and outpatient settings.

Materials and methods: Participation in the study was accepted by patients with 1 and 2 types of diabetes in inpatient and outpatient settings. The questionnaire consisted of alternations, united in the following sections: taking medications; diet; glucose control; physical activity; adherence to appointments. 74 patients were included in the study.

Results and discussion: 1) Education in the school of diabetes. 72% of patients with type 1 diabetes underwent training in the school of diabetes earlier, third (28%) indicated that they attend classes for the first time. Among patients with type 2 diabetes only 33.0% attended classes in the school of diabetes.

2) Self-monitoring of glucose. More than 2 times a day, 75.0% of patients with type 1 diabetes had a glycemia, the remaining 35% – once a day, 1–3 times a week, and 2 – only occasionally. 13.8% control the level of glycemia only in the morning.

3) Nutrition. Differences in the approaches to nutrition in patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes are primarily due to age and lifestyle.

4) Physical activity. Less than half (37.0%), patients with type 1 diabetes regularly exercise, and 63.0% of patients noted that they paid little attention to this. Among patients with type 2 diabetes, 55.8% exercise regularly.

5) Wealth. More than half of patients with type 1 diabetes either feel healthy, 44.4%, or are neutral in the answer to this question (37.0%), and 18.5% do not agree that they are healthy.

6) Compliance with treatment recommendations. Most patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes (79% and 73% respectively) make efforts to control their condition.

7) Complications. In 24% of patients with diabetes, retinopathy is noted, 10% have polyneuropathy, and 3% have nephropathy. Among patients with diabetes, 9% of patients have retinopathy, 22% have polyneuropathy, and 16% have nephropathy.

Conclusions:

• 75% of those surveyed with type 1 diabetes are aware of the importance of the most frequent definition of glycemia. Almost one third of patients with type 1 diabetes rarely have glycemia control.

• In type 2 diabetes, 33.3% of patients erroneously measured the level of glycemia only in the morning, which distorts the results about the variants of glucose values during the day.