ABSTRACT
Purpose:
To assess the
awareness and
knowledge about
diabetic retinopathy (DR) and associated factors among
patients visiting the tertiary
health center in Goa.
Methods:
A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using a standard predesigned and pretested closed-ended structured
questionnaire to assess the
awareness,
knowledge,
attitude and practice about DR among
patients visiting a tertiary
health center.
Results:
Three hundred and fifty-eight subjects participated in the study. Only 125 (34.9% [95% CI 30.0–40.1]) subjects were aware of DR and 122 (34.1% [95% CI 29.2–39.2]) had adequate
knowledge about DR.
Awareness and
knowledge of DR were significantly high among the subjects
who completed college
level of education (66.7%, OR = 2.78; 95% CI 1.73–4.48, P < 0.001 and 55.9%, OR = 3.92; 95% CI 2.41–6.38, P < 0.001) and
who spoke English (52.5%, OR = 3.37; 95% CI 2.14–5.30, P < 0.001 and 50.4%, OR = 3.26; 95% CI 2.07–5.14, P < 0.001). Christians reported better
knowledge about DR compared to other
religions (48.8%, OR = 2.27; 95% CI 1.38–3.75, P = 0.005). Negative
association was noted between the
knowledge of DR and presence of diabetes (29.4%, OR = 0.64; 95% CI 0.41–0.99, P = 0.048). The practice pattern was strongly associated (OR = 7.47; 95% CI 4.51–12.38, P < 0.001) with the
knowledge of DR.
Attitude was not influenced by any of the factors.
Conclusion:
We found that
awareness and
knowledge about DR were unsatisfactory;
literacy contributed significantly toward it. These findings also suggest that there is an immediate need to enhance the
awareness and
knowledge of diabetic
eye diseases in order to reduce the burden of
visual impairment.