Myths and misconceptions are one of the barriers which impedes the diabetics from presenting their problem to a healthcare professionals. Therefore, health education plays a pivotal role in in increasing the awareness about diabetes and its complications, thereby reducing the number of deaths due to micro- and macro-vascular complications of diabetes. A short-term hospital based study was carried out to assess the awareness among 30 diabetics between 30 and 60 years, attending a government hospital and a corporate-multispecialty hospital in the city. A questionnaire was developed to collect information on baseline characteristics, anthropometric measurements and biochemical parameters of the subjects and to assess their perception of myths and awareness about the disease, its complications and management and the results were evaluated according to the set local norms. Results of the study revealed that majority were obese irrespective of the gender. Men showed a poor glycaemic control than women though on medication, regardless of hospital they attended. Most common myths prevalent among the study group were- “Diabetics should eat special foods only like Ragi (Eleusine coracona) and millets from the cereal group”, ”Diabetics should never eat sweets and chocolates”, “All bitter tasting foods reduce blood sugar level” and “Eating too much sugar causes diabetes”. The subjects ≤50yrs had better awareness than ≥51yrs. However, there was no significant association as against to the level of education. Of the study group, 63.4% had an average awareness about diabetes, followed by 23.3% subjects with fair knowledge and only a smaller percentage had good awareness about diabetes. In conclusion, this study reflects the prevalence of myths and misconceptions in a significant percentage of subjects, which can hinder them from seeking timely medical intervention from physicians, dieticians/nutritionists and thereby prevent diabetes related complications.

Keywords: Myths; Misconception; Awareness; Diabetic complications; Statistical Associations; Mysuru

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Citation

Citation: Shraddha S., et al. “Assessment of Perception of Myths and Awareness about Diabetes Among Type-2 Diabetes Subjects in Selected Hospitals in Mysuru City". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.4 (2020): 21-27.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Cecilia E Asna Urooj., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.