Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding COVID-19 in Patients With Diabetes

Although COVID-19 can affect people in different age groups, the conditions and severity of symptoms are worse in people with diabetes. This aims to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding COVID-19 in people with diabetes in Tehran, Iran.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study on 384 patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes referred to Firozgar and Hazrat Rasool-e Akram hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences from December 2021 to June 2022. They were selected using a continuous sampling method. The instruments were a demographic form and the KAP questionnaire designed by Honarvar et al. (2020). Data analysis was done in SPSS v.16 using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The mean age of the participants was 40.11±15.20 years. It was reported that 94.8% had moderate and sufficient knowledge of COVID-19. The mean attitude score was 30.90±4.89 which is a moderate-to-high level. Only 1.3% had poor practice regarding COVID-19. A statistically significant relationship was observed between the average knowledge of patients and their marital status (P=0.006), employment status, and duration of disease (P<0.001). In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between the attitude of patients and their educational level (P=0.015) and duration of disease (P=0.027). Their practice level had a significant relationship with gender (P=0.010), marital status (P=0.001), and type of diabetes (P<0.001).

The KAP of people with diabetes in Tehran regarding COVID-19 is at a favorable level. This indicates the success of the measures taken to educate this category of patients by health centers and media, and reveals the necessity of increasing the health literacy of people in pandemics.