Health Intervention Impact Assessment on Glycemic Status of Diabetic patients

Abstract

Diabetes has been proved to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries, and is gradually emerging as an important health problem in developing countries as well. Diabetes, an iceberg disease could be described as the ‘sleeping snake’- which bites when it wakes up. Diabetics, who are joyfully moving in and around us in the society, who are really not aware of the possible catastrophic end results of harbouring this ‘sleeping snake’. This study was carried out to assess the impact of health intervention on life style, self care practices and Glycemic status of Diabetic patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Shivaji Nagar urban slum which is a field practice area of Department of Preventive and Social Medicine; of TN Medical College Mumbai, India. Diabetic patients above 40 years of age were included in this study. The information was gathered by personal interview using semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was numerically coded and entered in Microsoft Excel 2007 and then transferred to SPSS version 15.0 Added data was analysed with appropriate test and results were obtained. Out of 300 subjects183 (61%) were males, 146 (48.7%) patients were in the age group of 51-60. Before intervention 178 (59.3%) patients’ had Body mass index (BMI) > 25 kg/m<SUP>2</SUP><SUP> </SUP>and they had poor control over blood sugar. Significant improvement in life style, self care practices; illness perception and Glycemic status of patients were seen after health intervention. People have to be educated through mass media about Diabetes and its risk factors like consumption of food having high Glycemic index, alcohol etc. People have to be educated on the importance of regular physical exercises and should be encouraged to do the same.