Attitude and practice toward diabetic retinopathy among omani population

Abstract

Background: Poor patient compliances toward diabetic retinopathy (DR)-related care are associated with the barriers at a personal, interpersonal, societal, organizational, or a policy level. The personal factors contributing to noncompliance are linked with their negative attitude toward the disease management. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, prospective study. The study involved 232 participants from different provinces in Oman and with different socioeconomic and educational levels through a convenient sampling method. Participants' attitude toward DR was assessed using the responses for the provided statement related to the condition through a self-designed and validated questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: The Shapiro–Wilk normality test was applied and observed the nonnormal distribution of the attitude scores. Hence, the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test was applied to compare the percentage score with the independent groups of the study. Practicing pattern of the participants having a personal or family history of diabetes mellitus was evaluated using descriptive statistics. Results: Two hundred and thirty-two participants having mean age of 31.12 (standard deviation [SD] = 12.02) years responded to the questionnaire, of which 39.22% were male and 60.78% were female. The mean percentage attitude score was 83.09 (SD = 12.90, 24.44–100). About 82% of the study participants had a very positive attitude. Very few (12.73%) were noncompliant toward routine ocular examination. 82% of the study participants had a positive attitude and 87.27% were positively following eye care visits. Conclusions: Majority of the study participants have positive attitude toward the management of DR and practice for follow-up eye care visits as recommended by their eye care practitioners. DR-related health promotional activities within the population having lower educational status can support in improving their compliance.