Nadia Abdelkareem^1,, Hashim Suleiman²

Globally and day by day diabetes mellitus is growing and by 2035 diabetes patients will become 592 million according to international diabetes federation and 80% of them live in low and middle-income countries. In Sudan, the prevalence of diabetes is about 14.5% according to Sudan Household Survey report 2006, but diabetes in Sudan is associated with poor glycemic control and high prevalence of complication according to latest studies and this may be related to lack of knowledge and way of life. The study is done to show the effectiveness of diabetes education at primary health care level to produce changes in diabetes patients in their knowledge and lifestyle, which is very important for diabetes management. This study aimed to explore socio-demographic factors and disease factors of type 2 diabetes patients attending diabetes mini clinics at primary health care centers in Khartoum state-Sudan in 2015 and to determine the effect of diabetes education in knowledge and self-care practice of type 2 diabetes patients attending these facilities. The study was quasi-experimental study done at eleven diabetes mini clinics. Seventy eight of type 2 diabetes patients participated in this study, seventy of them continued till the end of the study with drop rate 10%, pre –post questionnaire was used, data were entered and analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for window version 20, percentage, mean and standard deviation and paired T. test were used to analyzed the data. The level of statistical significance was set at P. value < 0.05. Diabetes education had positive effect on Knowledge (P. value = .001), diet control and medication taking, P. value = .033 and .002 respectively. The study determined positive effect of diabetes education at primary health care centers on knowledge, self-care practice of diabetic patients. Moreover, the results of this study can be taken in account in policies making to improve the outcome in treating diabetes patients.

diabetes education, knowledge, self-care practice, Sudan