Diabetes Literacy Gap: Only 26 Percent of Patients Aware of Long-Term Risks, Study

As India confronts a staggering 11.4% prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and a global projection of 350 million cases by 2030, a profound clinical gap persists where nearly a quarter of patients remain undiagnosed and many more lack the necessary awareness to manage the disease effectively. To address this lack of knowledge, Dr. Abhivyakti Solanki from the Department of General Medicine at Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, along with colleagues, initiated this research to evaluate the level of awareness regarding Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and its multisystem complications within a tertiary care setting in North India.

Therefore, the hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted over a twelve-month period between December 2022 and November 2023 at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS) in Rohtak. The investigation involved 300 adult patients who had been receiving treatment for T2DM for at least one year, utilizing a native-language questionnaire to assess knowledge across various clinical domains while excluding pregnant women, minors, and individuals with mental disabilities. Researchers employed Microsoft Excel for data organization and utilized statistical tools such as the independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the significance of variables.

Key Clinical Findings of the research Include:

• Etiological Knowledge: The study found that while a high proportion of 93.67% recognized the underlying causes of their condition, this basic understanding did not extend to the recognition of long-term health risks.

• Complication Awareness: Only 26.67% of the cohort understood that the disease could lead to further complications, highlighting a significant educational void regarding the systemic nature of the illness.

• Gender Disparity: A significant difference in literacy was observed between genders, with male patients achieving a higher mean awareness score of 4.95 ± 1.81 compared to 3.56 ± 1.58 for females, a finding the study attributed to potentially higher levels of social interaction among men.

• Socioeconomic Factors: Statistical analysis revealed that higher educational attainment and active employment were significantly linked to better knowledge scores, whereas age and the duration of the disease showed no such correlation.

• Organ-Specific Risks: Recognition of specific damage was alarmingly low, as the study noted that only 11.67% were aware of eye complications, 12.33% knew of foot problems, and a mere 5% and 6% identified kidney and heart risks, respectively.

The results suggest that overall awareness remains suboptimal at 54.71%, with more than 43% of the participants failing to demonstrate even basic knowledge of the disease.

These findings indicate that medical professionals should prioritize comprehensive patient education during consultations to bridge the knowledge gap and improve self-care.

The primary limitation of this research was its cross-sectional design, which prevented long-term follow-up of patient outcomes, and there is a recognized need for future investigations to account for the impact of different primary consultation settings on patient literacy.

Reference

Singh J, Solanki A, Raidass S. A cross-sectional study of awareness about diabetes mellitus and its complications among Indian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. J Pharm Bioall Sci 2025;17:S2980-2.