Diabetes Self-management among a Random Sample of University Students at Assiut University, Egypt

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the fast-growing public health problems. knowledge of effective self-care management of diabetes among university students usually faces a lot of barriers. The study's objectives were to determine the level of knowledge of diabetes self-care management among a random sample of Assiut University Students and to provide a set of recommendations to increase the level of knowledge about diabetes. The study was a quantitative, observational analytic cross-sectional study carried out at the Youth Friendly clinic at Assiut University where a random sample of 300 students seeking services provided by the Clinic were enrolled. Data was collected with a self-administered structured questionnaire filled out by the student, after signing a written informed consent under the researcher's supervision and after explaining the research objectives. Questionnaires covered the basic sociodemographic data, and the Diabetes Self-management Questionnaire, (DSMQ). The Ethical Committee of the Assiut Faculty of Medicine and Warwick University reviewed and approved the research proposal. Results showed that there was a marked deficiency in the overall knowledge of the students regarding items of the DSMQ, only 34% of the students had an accepted level of knowledge in the sum scale, with 70% deficient knowledge in items of the glucose monitoring domain, 68% deficiency in items of the dietary control domain, 58% in the physical activity domain, and 48% in the health care use domain. Conclusion: Knowledge of university students about diabetes self-management is deficient in the majority of the self-care items.