Abstract:

Background: The burden of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) as one among Non-communicable Disease (NCDs) is growing heavy by the time. The number of individuals living with T2DM worldwide by the year 2010 was around 285 million people, of whom 80% lived in LMICs, whereby according to American Diabetes Association it is estimated that by the year 2030 approximately 438 million people will be living with diabetes. On other hand awareness of T2DM is still a challenge especially here in Tanzania are the survey done in Mwanza city showed that prevalence and awareness of T2DM was about 11.9%, which is not satisfactory.

Objective: This study assessed the awareness of risk and preventive measures of type 2 diabetes mellitus among non-diabetic patients attending outpatient clinics at Bugando Medical Centre.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional hospital-based study which was conducted on 14th -31st December 2020. Structured questionnaires were used to collect participant’s demographic and clinical information by systematic sampling of participants whereby 32 patients were sampled from five outpatient department including gynecological clinic, surgical clinic, hematological clinic, cardiovascular clinic and ENT clinics to reach the targeted sample size of 161. Each participant was selected after every 10 patients. Data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics 20 computer program.

Results: Generally the level of awareness about risk factors of type 2 diabetes is low as from this study, among 161 participants only 31.7% (51), had good level of awareness while the majority 68.3% (110), had poor level of awareness about risk factors of T2DM, regarding awareness of preventive measures against T2DM, majority of the participants had average level of awareness as they mentioned some of those preventive measures 68.3% (110), followed by those with poor awareness as they mentioned only one 11.2% (18), and others weren’t aware of any of mentioned preventive measures 9.9% (16), however few had the best knowledge as they were able to mention all of the assigned preventive measures or even more 8.7% (14). Vital measures need to be taken to increase the level of awareness pertaining risk factors and preventive measures of T2DM. This can be done through formulation of posters and banners even brochures that contains messages concerning the common risk factors and preventive measures in simple words or even illustrations which are easy to follow so that every patient or non-patient attending BMC OPD may be able to understand.