Awareness of the Diabetic Population Towards Diabetic Complications: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Diabetes (DM) is a complex disease that affects more than 170 million people worldwide. Despite its knowledge, compliance with medications, and following a diet plan, diabetic patients are at risk of many chronic complications affecting different organ systems, which deteriorates health of the population and increases health care costs. Awareness of diabetic complications at the community level is important to reduce diabetes-related morbidity, mortality and ultimately health care cost. Purpose: The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1) To assess the level of awareness of diabetic complications in diabetic patients, and 2) To identify the prevalence of the most common diabetic complications in diabetic patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2022 to February 2023. The instrument used was a questionnaire was filled by male and female diabetic patients greater than 18 years old. The data was taken from 320 patients, from private and puclic healthcare settings of Lahore, Pakistan and analyzed by SPSS 21.0. Results: More than 70% of patients were aware of all the diabetic complications except the complications of stroke and frequent infections. This study also found that among the different diabetic complications, peripheral neuropathy is perceived by patients to be the most common complication with a frequency of about 82.2%, and amputation is least common with a frequency about 3.8%. Conclusion: There is a relatively good level of awareness of diabetes and its complications among patients with diabetes in Lahore, Pakistan.