Knowledge,attitudes and practices of general practitioners towards diabetes mellitus in Hyderabad,Sindh

Objectives: to ascertain the knowledge,attitude and practice of general practitioners towards diabetes mellitus. study design: cross sectional study. duration of study: from july 2009 to october 2009. place of the study: the cases were collected from various areas of hyderabad like latifa- bad,qasimabad,hussainabad,pretabad and tando jam,hosrri. material & methods: one hundred general practitioners were selected from all major tehsils of hyderabad. those who were not willing or refused to participate in this study were excluded. a written questionnaire was filled by each doctor that included the 4 questions of each domain of knowledge,practice and attitudes. the knowledge was assessed by levels of blood glucose,random and fasting,practices assessed by treatment options and attitudes by advising to their patients for obesity,diet and pregnancy. the frequencies were taken of known or unknown. results: out of 100 participants 35 belonged to periphery and 65 to major areas of hyderabad. the mean+sd age was 41+3.5 years and mean+sd duration of practice was 10.4±5.7 years. each doctor had seen 10 diabetic patients per day. out of 100 doctors,55 answered correctly and 45 were poor to all domain. conclusion: this study explored the knowledge,attitudes and practices regarding diabetes in hyderabad among general practitioners and identified the need for improvement in managing diabetes. awareness and education regarding diabetes is recommended to improve the healthcare services provided by general practitioners.