Teachers’ Knowledge of Diabetes and Attitudes towards Diabetic Students in the Primary Schools in Al Baha City in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The lifestyle in Saudi Arabia has changed significantly during the last few decades since oil was discovered in 1938. This discovery led to an economic revolution in Saudi Arabia. However, this resulted in people changing their eating habits, which included eating fast food due to their new work responsibilities. Therefore, some chronic diseases such as diabetes, which is one of the most widespread chronic diseases in Saudi Arabia, became more common. This study aims to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards diabetic pupils and teachers’ knowledge of diabetes as a chronic disease in governmental primary schools in a city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a survey-based research study of the attitudes and teachers’ knowledge of diabetes and the research used a quantitative methodology to answer the research questions. The sample of the study consisted of 59 teachers in the governmental primary male schools with mixed background variables of, for example, majors, teaching experiences, and levels of education. The study used a questionnaire in order to achieve research questions. It included two scales: the teachers’ knowledge of diabetes and an attitude scale towards diabetic students as well as the items of these two-scale knowledge tests and attitude scale developed by the researcher. The findings demonstrate that there was not a statistical difference between the teachers’ knowledge test and their six different majors. On the other hand, the teaching experience had a positive impact on teachers’ attitude towards diabetic students. Although the negative correlation between teachers’ knowledge of diabetes and their attitude towards diabetic students was small, this value could still suggest a negative correlation. The current study can lead to increased awareness of teachers and educational policy-makers to take into consideration training teachers in some common chronic diseases such as diabetes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.