Abstract

The global prevalence of diabetes is increasing exponentially and expected to reach 783 million by the end of year 2045. The burden of complications of diabetes can be mitigated if the disease is diagnosed early and treated adequately. A cross-sectional pilot study from July 2021 to October 2021 on 52 participants from diverse areas of Bareilly (Northern India) was conducted. Only 38.46% of participants found to have good knowledge (knowledge score ≥ 19). Characters like ‘level of education’, ‘close relative with diabetes’, ‘income’ and ‘education in the medical field’ were having significant association with good knowledge score (p<0.05). Around 67.28% population showed positive attitude towards diabetes. Although ‘the education related to medical field’ and ‘level of education’ were found significantly associated with positive attitude (p < 0.05) and binary logistic regression showed both the variable as the predictor of positive attitude. The mean knowledge score of participants possessing positive practices in relation to ‘doing regular exercise’ was higher compared with who do not do regular exercise (p<0.001). Conclusively, the current study can be considered as a baseline for nationwide diabetes awareness programs to revamp the knowledge of population towards diabetes emphasizing the development of attitude & practices.