PERCEPTION ABOUT CAUSE OF DIABETES AMONG URBAN AND RURAL DIABETICS OF HARYANA

Shiba; Meena Rajput; Kanika Bansal; Ankit Kumar Goutam

Volume : IX, Issue : III, March - 2020

PERCEPTION ABOUT CAUSE OF DIABETES AMONG URBAN AND RURAL DIABETICS OF HARYANA

Shiba, Meena Rajput, Kanika Bansal, Ankit Kumar Goutam

Abstract :

Background: Correct knowledge about diabetes and its management has an enormous impact on attitude and practice of diabetic patients. There is lot of information available about diabetes, still people have different perceptions about cause of diabetes. Materials and Methods: Cross–sectional study was carried out from September 2016 to January 2017 among known diabetics more than 18 years of age. A total of 800 diabetics were chosen from urban and rural field practice area attached to Pt.B.D. Sharma, PGIMS, Rohtak. A predesigned and pretested semi–structured questionnaire was filled by interviewing known diabetics in their vernacular language individually. Results: The age of respondents range from 21 years to 92 years with mean age of 58.03 (+ 12.53) year. 107(26.75%) rural participants and 95(23.75%) urban participants perceived that they got diabetes due to their increased sugar intake. Conclusion: Diabetic individuals believed that the disease most likely developed from their increased sugar intake (mostly due to adding more sugar in tea and consuming tea 3 or more times a day). Also ,many individuals believed physical inactivity due to laziness as cause of their diabetes. To an astonishment few individuals were found who believed that they got diabetes as god�s punishment for their past sins. Beliefs and guilt were found associated with the diabetes cause.