Diabetes related knowledge, attitude and practices of family physicians in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards diabetes of Family Physicians (FPs) working in urban and rural areas of Pakistan. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional survey was conducted on FPs through an interview by a trained person and filling up a questionnaire focused on diagnosis, treatment and complications of diabetes. The answers were scored by assigning marks and conversion to percentages. The computer package SPSS version 10 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS A total of 767 FPs (756 males, 11 females, average age 42.18 years) with a mean clinical practice duration of 13.41 years, with 681 practicing in urban areas and 86 in rural areas, participated in the study. Each FP saw on an average 58 patients daily, spending a mean of 8.5 minutes with each case. More than 90% FPs treated diabetics and 107 (14%) of the doctors were diabetic themselves. Overall 62% answers were correct, with the FPs from Sindh having the highest score of 66% and the Federal Capital Area with the lowest 54%. The questions answered correctly by less than 50% of FPs pertained to diagnostic blood values of glucose, treatment of children with diabetes, pregnant diabetics, monitoring of diabetics and technique of insulin injection. The questions answered correctly by more than 50% of FPs were related to diagnosis of Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), insulin in pregnancy, importance of education in diabetics and diabetes complications, screening and management. CONCLUSION This study has explored several aspects of diabetes related KAP of Family Physicians and identified the need for improvement in their practices for treating and educating diabetics. Awareness and education programmes are recommended to update the FPs on early detection and management of diabetes.