Knowledge, attitude, and practices on diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy among general practitioners in public and confessional hospitals in Douala

Abstract

Background: awareness of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy among the general practitioners’ is a major factor for the prevention of diabetes-related ocular complications. They are most often the first line of contact of diabetic patients and their knowledge, attitude and practice are the principal indicators of their level of awareness. Objectives: the aim is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of general physicians on diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy in public and confessional hospitals in Douala. Materials and methods: an analytic cross sectional study was conducted from February to May 2021. Data was collected through a well-designed anonymous self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was mainly made of close ended questions. It contains questions on demographic and clinical experience data, knowledge, attitude and practices toward DR/DM. At the end of the survey, the entire data coded and entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Data were analyzed using statistical program for social sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 for windows. Categorical variable was summarized using frequencies and percentages. Continuous variable was summarized using means, percentages, ranges and standard deviation. Where appropriate, dynamic cross tabulation, Chi square and Fischer test statistics were used to assess the relationship between two categorical variables. Significant differences and associations were determined by p-values set at < 0.05. Results: A total of 196 participants were included in the study, 56.6% were female. The mean age of the study group was 28.57 ± 2.25, with age range of 24-36 years. GPs had an average knowledge on DR/DM at 68.3%. There were gaps noted regarding factors influencing the severity and treatment modality. 100% of GPs were aware that duration of diabetes, poor glycemic control and hypertension were factors that can affect severity of DR/DM. In the study, 74.9% were not aware of any treatment modalities of DR/DM. GPs had an overall poor attitude toward screening of DR/DM at 79.6%. There were gaps noted regarding the checkup of DR/DM, where 50.25% asked for yearly Checkup upon diagnosis of DR and 28% asked for checkup upon diagnosis of DM between 1 to 3 months. In term of practice 100% of GPs never tested the vision of their diabetic patients and no one had access to the ophthalmoscope. Conclusion: participants had mean gaps in their knowledge but poor attitude that translate poor practice.