Abstract:
Abstract
Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy is a significant public health problem and preventable
and treatable cause of visual morbidity. The fresh medical graduates, health officers and
nurses who are the future health care worker are partners in the diabetic care. Through the
researcher search no studies had been carried out on knowledge, attitudes and associated
factors on diabetic retinopathy among final year medical, health officer and nurse students in
this study area.
Objective: The objective of the study was to determine knowledge, attitudes and associated
factors on diabetic retinopathy among final year medical, health officer and nursing students
in university of Gondar.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from March to June 2017. The study was
all final year medical, health officer and nursing student in University of Gondar. Data were
collected by trained optometrists using pretested questioner and was entered to epi info
3.5.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. the descriptive statistics was
carried out. Binary logistic regression was applied to determine the associated factors for
dependent variables.
Results: A total of 358 medical, health officer and nursing students were participated in the
study. Among the study participants 192 (53.6%, (95% CI: 48.60-58.70)) had good
knowledge. Regarding the attitude, 53.1% of the students had favorable attitude (95% CI:
48.30-58.40). In the present study having observed at least one diabetic retinopathy case
was positively associated with good knowledge AOR=2.60; (95% CI 1.50-4.47). There was
also statistically significant association between taking ophthalmology course with good
knowledge AOR=10.54, (95% CI: 4.25-26.12), taking ophthalmology course was also
associated with favorable Attitude AOR=3.30; (95% CI 1.60-6.80).
Conclusion and recommendation: In this study, about half of the participants had good
knowledge and favorable attitude towards diabetic retinopathy. Taking ophthalmology
course and observing DR case were positively associated with good knowledge and also
taking ophthalmology course was significantly associated with favorable attitude. The
researcher recommends to incorporate ophthalmic course with existed nursing curriculum
and to give continuing medical education and regular training programs for health care
professionals.
Key words: Knowledge, attitude, Diabetic retinopathy, students, Gondar, Ethiopia
