The Influence Of Diabetes Knowledge, Attitude And Beliefs About Selfcare Practices Among Persons Living With Diabetes In The Tamale Metropolis

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The prevalence of diabetes and its complications are major public health issues globally, regionally and locally. Notable complications and consequences of diabetes are stroke, blindness, amputation, death etc. Inadequate knowledge of diabetes, negative attitude and perception about diabetes are usually the root causes of diabetes complications and consequences. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of diabetes knowledge, attitude and beliefs about selfcare practices among persons living with diabetes in the Tamale Metropolis. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional research design was adopted for this study and questionnaire was employed in the data collection. A sample size of 150 diabetes patients compromising of 117 females and 33 males, with age range of 35-75, were selected using systematic random sampling. The study was conducted in the Tamale Central Hospital in the Tamale Metropolis. Pearson correlation was used to determine the association between diabetes patients’ knowledge and selfcare practice and between attitude of diabetes patients and selfcare practice. A Linear Regression analysis was used to determine how diabetes selfcare practice is influenced by belief of diabetes patients. RESULTS The results showed that majority of the participants were females (78%). Also, more than half of the respondents were married (71.3%) and 82% of the respondents had never had formal education. About 85.3% subscribed to the Islamic faith. In addition, there was a negative significant association between diabetes patients’ knowledge and selfcare practice, r (148) = -0.25, p < 0.01. v Furthermore, there was a positive statistically significant association between attitude of diabetes patients and Selfcare Practice, r (148) = 0.27, p < 0.01. Finally, the findings indicated that, the outcome of the linear regression model was not significant, F (1, 148) = 0.13, p > 0.05, selfcare practice = 43.82 + 0.04 (belief), this means, for any change in diabetes belief will results in 0.04 change in selfcare practice. CONCLUSION Adherence to Selfcare Practice is influenced by diabetes patients’ knowledge about diabetes and their attitudes towards the diabetes disease. However, diabetes patients’ belief about diabetes did not predict Selfcare Practice adherence. It is therefore recommended that, health professionals including nurses, dieticians, doctors etc. should adapt more counseling skills and also, should adapt awareness creation and behavior change communication to impact diabetes knowledge, positive perception and attitude towards diabetes.