Level of achieving health care in patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus

SUMMARY Diabetes influences the whole life take patients by biologic, physiologic and social effects. A diabetic patient must a planned care for surviving in his whole life and regularly must take help of a specialist. In addition to these limitations and burdens, acute and chronic complications decrease the quality of life. Continuing medical service is important for this disease but in especially developing countries, treatment and medical service can be achieved by very low number of patients. In our region which is a less developed region of our country. It is important for the health care workers to know how many of the diabetic patients can reach enough and continuous health care services. For this purpose, type 2 diabetic patients applied to Dicle University hospital and other health care institutes (Primary Care Center, State hospital, Social Insurance hospital) were investigated to evaluate the level of medical care. They all the data was obtained by forms which were prepared by face to face interviews made between 01 October 2002- 31 December 2002. The study included 250 patients. The level of achieving health care was measured by the help of diabetes care scale and the affecting factors were studied. Generally, level of achieving health care was found to be low among diabetes patients; moreover, chronic complications were seen much among diabetics and the health care personal did not give the recommendations to the patients Diabetic care scale score was found to be 43.3+19.3 in the patients of university hospital and the score for the patients of other institutes was found to be 30.3+1 9.1 (p:0.0001 ), lower than the former. Of the patients, 79.6 % had at least one chronic complication, the 13.6% had no problem to reach the diabetes nurse, 59.6% had no problem to reach the doctor 62but it was found that 47.6% did not use the drugs regular. In our study, 52% of patients were able to be scanned for Hb A1c. In our country and in Diyarbakır, the place of the study, the scores show that diabetic patients have difficulties to reach the enough medical care. Enough medical care is very important for the diseases like diabetes. For this reason organizations must be prepared to prevent the barrier to achieve the preventive medical service National Diabetes control program must be distributed to the general country and the medical service presented to the patients must be effective in all steps. Standard diagnosis and treatment guides must be prepared and the patients' should be examined by the help of these guides. As soon as the diabetes diagnosis is certain, every patient must be given diabetes education. Key Words Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Health Care, Diyarbakır, Diabetes Care Scale 63