Diabetic Patients’ Instructional Needs at the Special Diseases Center of Shahid Mohammadi University in 2016
Author(s): Zahra Soltanian, Sima Torkizade, Nasrin Davaridolatabadi
Abstract
Diabetes is considered a non-contagious and prevalent disease also known as the silent epidemic. Due to its great many side effects and the high medical costs, this disease needs great care and caution in education and control. Therefore, we decided to conduct the present research to investigate the instructional needs of these patients. As a descriptive-analytical research, the present investigation had all patients at the special diseases center of Shahid Mohammadi hospital as its population. From among them, 97 subjects were selected randomly in 2016. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire comprised of three sections the first of which included demographic information (age, sex, education, occupation, economic status, marital status, no. of family members). The second section consisted of patients’ history of the disease (length of the disease, type, family background, prior hospitalization, the last visit paid to a doctor, cause of hospitalization, blood glucose). The third section dealt with the diet (16 items), control and treatment domain (13 items) and prevention (13 items). All items were yes/no questions. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used as the statistical procedure and the reliability and validity of the instrument were already established and reported in a prior investigation. SPSS ver.22.0 was used to analyze the data statistically. The results showed that the majority of subjects suffered from diabetes type II (61%) and there was no significant divergence between male and female subjects with this concern. The highest age range (46%) was 50-60 years, and the uneducated were 16.5% and those holding an academic degree were 3.1%. No correlation was observed between the prevention domain (p=.28) and the instructional course and the insulin therapy domain (p=.26). However, income and diet were significantly correlated (p=.047). The findings revealed that patients needed instructions in insulin therapy. Concerning their diet, they enjoyed a high awareness but due to low income they could not satisfy their needs. This could lead to the early emergence of side effects. Though the majority of the subjects had a secondary education, they still required both awareness and instructions fitted to everyone’s needs provided by the medical staff. More economic assistance is required to be offered to diabetic patients. If their needs are met at the proper time, early side effects are not emerged. Moreover, all the medical centers and staff especially nurses are supposed to analyze the needs properly especially the instructional ones and provide these patients with proper instructions fitted to their conditions.
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