Assessment of Diabetes Knowledge and its Associated Factors among Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Mekelle and Ayder Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia Kalayou K Berhe * , Haftu B Gebru, Hailemariam B Kahsay and Alemseged A Kahsay Department of Nursing, College of Health sciences,Mekelle University, Ethiopia * Corresponding author: Kalayou K Berhe, Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, PO. Box 1871, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, Tel: +251912117719; E-mail:Kalushaibex@yahoo.com Rec date: Apr 21, 2014, Acc date: May 20, 2014, Pub date: May 25, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 Berhe KK, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Background: Poor patient understanding of diabetes is believed to impede appropriate self-care management, thus accelerating cardiovascular complications, stroke, and kidney failure. Objective: To assess diabetes knowledge level and associated factors among type 2 diabetic patients in Mekelle hospital and Ayder referral hospitals, Mekelle City, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Method: Institutional based cross sectional method was used and 310 study subjects was selected using systematic random sampling technique and the data was collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Scoring method was employed to classify respondents’ knowledge level. Result: A total of 310 male and female adult type 2 diabetic patients were interviewed from the total of about 1000 diabetes patients who have regular follow up in the hospitals using standardized structured questionnaire and the response rate was 96.8%. This study analyzed respondents’ diabetes knowledge level and of the total only 44.0% of the respondents scored ‘good’ on the total diabetes knowledge questions. This result showed that there was significant association between diabetes family history and diabetes knowledge level [P<0.025, AOR (95% CI)=1.860 (1.077-3.209)]. Conclusion: Despite the important role of diabetes knowledge were recognized to be useful and effective in achieving diabetes control and preventing its serious complication, findings of this study confirm previous findings concerning the diabetes knowledge level. Generally diabetes knowledge level was suboptimal among type 2 diabetic patients in Ayder referral hospital endocrinology and Mekelle hospital chronic care unit. Keywords: Type 2 diabetic patients; Diabetes knowledge; Diabetes management Introduction Diabetes is a general term for a group of metabolic disorders that affect the body’s ability to process and use sugar (glucose) for energy. The prevalence of diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. World Health Organization predicts that developing countries will bear the brunt of this epidemic in the 21 st century. According to International Diabetes Federation (IDF) diabetes Atlas, 5 th edition 2012 report, currently; more than 80% of people with diabetes live in Low and Middle Income Countries. An estimated 366 million people were living with diabetes in 2011. The number is expected to grow to 552 million by 2030 and the largest age group currently affected by diabetes is between 40-59 years. The global prevalence of diabetes is 8.3%. However, the African region is expected to experience the highest increase in coming years with estimated increase in prevalence rates of 98% for sub-Saharan Africa, and 94% for North Africa and the Middle East [1-4]. The IDF Atlas 5 th edition 2012 report revealed that in 2011, 14.7 million adults in the Africa region are estimated to have diabetes, with a regional prevalence of 3.8%. This would rise to 28 million by 2030 with prevalence of 4.3%, an increase of 80%, as such exceeding the predicted worldwide increase of 55%. Type 2 diabetes is responsible for 85-95% of all diabetes in high-income countries but Type 2 diabetes accounts for well over 90% of diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa even in other low- and middle-income countries and population prevalence proportions ranged from 1% in rural Uganda to 12% in urban Kenya. Based on the IDF Atlas 5 th edition, 2012 report number of cases of diabetes in Ethiopia to be estimated about 1.4 million in 2011 [5,6]. The greatest weapon in the fight against diabetes mellitus is knowledge. Information can help people assess their risk of diabetes, motivate them to seek proper treatment and care, and inspire them to take charge of their disease for their lifetime. In view of the increasingly high incidence of complications in diabetic patients, it would be valid to assess the perception of the primary healthcare patient of his or her actual disease state and the problems that may arise. Proper management requires life style changes and adequate Diabetes Knowledge of which is considered a key component of diabetes management. Differences in knowledge level have been described depending on level of education, gender and social classes. Assessment of the level of knowledge on diabetes among persons with diabetes can assist in targeting public health efforts to reduce diabetes related complications [5,7-9]. Berhe et al., J Diabetes Metab 2014, 5:5 DOI: 10.4172/2155-6156.1000378 Research Article Open Access J Diabetes Metab ISSN:2155-6156 JDM, an open access journal Volume 5 • Issue 5 • 1000378 J o u r n a l o f D i a b e t e s & M e t a b o l i s m ISSN: 2155-6156 Journal of Diabetes and Metabolism