انتشار مضاعفات الداء السكري و تقييم مستوى الوعي لدى مرضى السكري المراجعين لمؤسسات الرعاية الصحية في دمشق : دراسة مقطعية متعددة المراكز

Abstract EN

Background: Despite the advancements accomplished in healthcare around the globe, Diabetes still poses death threat for many patients, and is one of the most challenging obstacles facing healthcare systems particularly in underdeveloped countries.

Public healthcare institutes (hospitals and primary care centers) in Syria provide Diabetic patients with free medications (i.e., insulin) and satisfactory level of awareness and education.

However, these efforts have not been evaluated to assess patients’ awareness and their translation of this knowledge into a positive attitude that contributes to prevention of Diabetes complications.

Aim: To assess prevalence of diabetic complications and evaluate awareness among Syrian diabetic patients visiting the public healthcare centers as an indicator of the efficacy of diabetes management in the country.

Methods: a multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted among adult participants selected deliberately from the outpatient clinics and inpatient departments of Al-Mouasat and Al-Assad University Hospital sand Abou Zar Alghefari Health Center in Damascus.

The patients were asked to answer a questionnaire designed to evaluate prevalence of Diabetes complications and patients’ awareness using a 24-question score.

Results: A total of 391 patients (aged between 17 to 89 years, 53% males)were interviewed between February, 2014 and June, 2016.

Findings of this study reveal high prevalence of Diabetes complications (neuropathy 60%, ophthalmological 50%, cardiovascular 24%, and Diabetic foot 12%) despite relatively high awareness scores (approximately 65% of the patients scored > 70%).

Conclusions: These results prove a widening gap between patients aware nesson one hand and implementation of knowledge in the diabetic management process in Syrian Diabetes patients.

This failure might be attributed to the patient’s attitude, economics and some fallacious health believes underestimated by health authorities.