Assessment of self-care practices among diabetic patients, Suraram, Telangana State, India

India contributes to 69.2 million diabetics (8.7%) as per World Health Organization, 2015. Specific, effective and affordable care reduces morbidity and mortality among them. Although challenging, self care is one of the important practices among diabetic patients which is not well-documented. Therefore, assessment of unique data sets on self care practices among diabetics immensely helps to improve their quality of life, prevent complications andpre-mature deaths.

To assess the self-care practices among diabetic patients residing at Suraram, Telangana State

Cross-sectional study

Urban Health Training Centre

Data was collected from 155 Diabetic patients during July to December 2016, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) instrument was employed to collect the data.

Reported as frequencies in numbers and percentages. Chi-square and ANOVA were performed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, version 19). p < 0.05 was set to consider as significance level.

Study subjects ranged from 25 to 83 yrs of age, mean age 52y± 11.52, females were slightly more 80 (51.6%); Most were Hindus 123 (79.4%); Maximum Backward class (BC) 73 (47.1%); 84 (54.2%) belonged to Upper and Lower middle class of Kuppuswamy's socio-economic class; 90 (58.1%) smoked and 93 (60%) addicted to alcohol. Overall poor practices were in 82 (53%) of them. There was an association between self-care practices and socio-economic class, smoking, alcohol, co-morbidities and complications (p < 0.05). However, age, sex, religion, caste, type of family, marital status, duration of disease did not show any association.

Promoting self-care practices is vital and has to be emphasized by the clinicians who treat them