A Study on the Assessment of Educational Needs of Diabetic Patients

Diabetes is the commonest chronic disease worldwide. The nature of this disease and its adverse effects cause heavy economic burdens and reduces the life quality of the patients and his/her family. Thus, we designed this study for the assessment of educational needs of diabetic patients in Amir-al-momenin hospital in Zabol. This study was of descriptive –analytical type. The population of the study was chosen intentionally and the samples were gathered from Amir-al-momenin hospital. The tools included a questionnaire which was divided into three parts. The first part was dedicated to the personal characteristics, the second part was about the history of disease and the third part about the diet (16 questions), control area (13 questions) and prevention (13 questions). The data were gathered by the aid of the questionnaire and finally, they were analyzed using descriptive and deductive statistics (SPSS). The results showed that the most of the cases (64%) were diagnosed with diabetes type 2. Most of them (48%) were between 51-60. Also, most of them (38%) have suffered diabetes for 1 to 5 years. Majority of them had not the sufficient knowledge (75% in control and treatment, 11% in prevention and 49% in diet areas). The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recommends that every diabetic patient needs 15 hours of education, every two years. The influential and useful effects of patient's education have been excessively proven by different studies. So, it is necessary for the hospitals that trained nurses teach the patients, the necessary knowledge about self-protection.