FP416

Diabetes retinopathy: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice: Impact on Quality of Life

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy is blinding ophthalmic consequence of uncontrolled diabetic mellitus. This study is planned to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice among diabetic patients to plan further awareness strategies.
Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted over period of two month. A prefixed score was used for categorizing levels of knowledge and practice as good or poor and attitude as positive or negative.
Results: Out of 400 diabetic patients, 112 patients had diabetic retinopathy and 288 patients had no diabetic retinopathy. Patients with diabetic retinopathy had good knowledge compare to patients without diabetic retinopathy. Many patients had never previously has dilated eye examination due to lack of awareness.
Conclusion: Good knowledge was significantly associated with good practice and positive attitude. The awareness regarding diabetic retinopathy is important to prevent vision loss due to retinopathy.