Association of knowledge level on diabetic self-care practices among adult clients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) complications in Kibwezi East sub-county, Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Self-care practices are the cornerstones of diabetes management. However, very little is known about self-care in  developing countries where the prevalence of diabetes is increasing.

Objective: to evaluate knowledge level on diabetes self-care practices among adult clients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus complications in  Kibwezi East sub-county, Makueni County, Kenya.

Design: analytical cross-sectional study design was utilized. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select health facilities  ensuring full representation while Census sampling technique was used to get all the 110 participants from each selected health facility  to whom the researcher administered questionnaires. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 27 helped in analysis.  Chisquare was employed to evaluate the significant associations between variables at a p value < 0.05.

Results: Response rate was 100%  and the study found that the overall self-care practices were not adequate. Most patients (53.6%, n=59) reported irregular selfmonitoring  of blood sugar. Dietary and physical exercise recommendations were inadequately practiced by most (89.1%, n=98) of the participants.  Level of knowledge on diabetic care practices was poor at 60% (n=66). There was no statistically significant relationship between level of  knowledge and self-care practices level (ꭓ²= 0.256, df= 1, p value = 0.258).

Conclusion: Self-care practices were inadequately practiced  and participants had poor level of knowledge on self-care practices. However, there was no significant association between level of  diabetic knowledge and self-care practices among participants. There is need to explore other determinants of self-care practices in managing diabetes.