Background: Hypoglycemia has a significant impact on an individual's quality of life. This study
aimed to assess knowledge of adult patients with diabetes on hypoglycemia and its
management. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a newly developed self-administered questionnaire was
conducted from April to May 2017, at National Guard Primary Health Care Centers, Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. Simple descriptive statistics were used. Inferential statistics was
performed in the form of Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA. Regarding knowledge questions,
a score of (1) was given to the right answer, and summation of scores was computed
(the total score was 42). Knowledge scores were categorized into good, moderate, and
poor based on the mean score. Results: A total of 361 adult patients with diabetes were involved (208 (57.6%) women; 153
(42.4%)). The majority (341; 94.5%) were Type 2 diabetes patients. Mean knowledge
score was 32.0 (±8.2), and a score of ≥31.5 represented good knowledge, while a score
between 21 and 31.5 represented a moderate level of knowledge, and a score below 21
represented poor knowledge. The majority (92.2%) had poor level of knowledge. Factors
associated with better knowledge were male sex, younger age, being a student, or holding
a bachelor degree, being single, receiving high monthly income, Type 1 diabetes, and
having previous hypoglycemia experience. Regarding hypoglycemia management, 66.8%
identified the right management, which was “eating 15 g of fast-acting carbohydrate.”
Conclusion: Most participants showed poor knowledge regarding hypoglycemia. More efforts and
time should be made during regular visits to provide the necessary health education
about hypoglycemia signs for all patients with diabetes.
Keywords
Diabetes mellitus - hypoglycemia - knowledge - primary care
