Diabetic self care practices in rural Mysuru, Southern Karnataka, India - A need for Diabetes Self Management Educational (DSME) program.

CONTEXT: Diabetes and its complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Self care has emerged as a crucial element in the management of diabetes and a key factor associated with the quality of diabetic care.

AIMS: The purpose of the study was to assess the self care activities of patients with Type II diabetes mellitus in a rural area of Mysuru district.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A community based cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among 400 diabetic patients in rural Mysore.

METHODS AND MATERIAL: Self care Activities (Diet, exercise, self blood glucose monitoring, medication, foot care, smoking) were assessed using a pre designed and tested questionnaire.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Relevant descriptive analysis like percentages is carried out using SPSS version 22.0.

RESULTS: Most of the diabetic patients had good compliance for medication (92.5%), followed by 72% for diabetic diet. Only 27.75% of the diabetic patients participated in walking, 24.25% practised foot care, blood glucose monitoring by 24.75% and only 25.5% of them were current smokers.

CONCLUSIONS: The rural diabetic patients are more adherent and compliant to medication and diabetic diet and less compliant to physical activity, foot care and self glucose monitoring.