Self-care knowledge and contributing factors among ambulatory diabetes mellitus patients in North-Central, Ethiopia: a facility-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a serious, chronic medical condition. It requires ongoing medical follow-up and patient self-management. However, poor self-management and diabetes complications are the result of inadequate diabetes self-care knowledge. Hence, this study aimed to investigate diabetes self-care knowledge and associated factors among diabetes patients in North-Central, Ethiopia. Methods: a facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed among 355 diabetes patients at North-Central, Ethiopia, public and private health facilities from March 22nd to April 30th, 2022. A systematic sampling technique was applied to select study participants. The data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and by reviewing patient charts. We used Epidata version 4.6 to enter the data, and SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to identify contributing factors for diabetic patients´ self-care knowledge. Results: among the total participants, 54% had good knowledge about diabetes self-care. Variables like, educational level diploma and above (AOR: 3.407, 95% CI: 1.337-8.684), monthly income of 2000 birr and above (AOR: 4.384, 95% CI: 1.548-12.411), respondents with regular follow-up (AOR: 8.910, 95% CI: 2.903-17.349), and those who have ever attended diabetes health education (AOR: 5.554, 95% CI: 1.820-16.953) were significantly associated with having good diabetes self-care knowledge. Conclusion: more than half of the participants have good knowledge of diabetes self-care. As per our results, educational level, monthly income, regular follow-up, and having experience in diabetes-related health education were independent determinants of having good knowledge about diabetes self-care.