Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and objective: The research was conducted with the aim of highlighting the awareness and understanding of the disease among diabetic patients.

Methods: The study included 85 patients with type 2 diabetes, aged 40+ years old, who had been monitoring their blood glucose levels and HbA1c levels in the previous 4 months. Patients were presented a questionnaire with 5 questions about diabetes. The patients’ responses were classified and expressed in percentages.

Results: The questions and answers were as follows: 1) What is diabetes? 26% – lack of insulin / obesity, 74% – incorrect / no response; 2) What causes diabetes? 23% – pancreas, 15% – kidney, 7% – liver, 44% – don’t know, 11% – other organs; 3) What is the optimal value of fasting and postprandial blood glucose? 47% – correct or acceptable answer, 53% – incorrect answer / don’t know; 4) What happens if diabetes is not treated properly or effectively? 58% – eye or kidney disorder, 40% – insignificant response, 2% – don’t know; 5) What is insulin? 62% – medicine / hormone, 37% – injection, 1% – don’t know. The majority of patients have had diabetes for 5 years or longer and have comorbidities. 48% of patients are on oral medications, 7% on GLP-1 analogs in combination with OAD, 8% receive GLP-1 analogs, 16% are on insulin therapy, and 21% are on oral medications in addition to insulin therapy. HbA1c levels (%) are ≤ 7 in 32% of patients, 7 – 9 in 44%, and ≥ 9 in 24%. Despite mostly having high HbA1c levels, a small percentage are on insulin therapy.

Conclusion: Patient education aimed at developing a positive attitude towards the disease, understanding the disease, providing motivation, and encouragement to keep the disease under control is essential for the management of diabetic patients.