Prevalence of diabetes is rapidly increasing in Oman similar to other regions in the world. Self-care can improve diabetic control as well as delay the complication and is also important to reduce the cost on diabetic control. Self-care includes regular exercise, taking recommended diet, proper intake of prescribed medications and blood glucose monitoring. The purpose of this study was to identify knowledge, attitude and barriers of self-care in diabetic patients presenting in primary health care center. A cross sectional survey based study was carried out in Sohar Poly clinic, North Batinah region in Oman. Data was collected on self-administered questionnaire in which core elements were divided into Demographics, clinical characteristics, diabetes self-care, knowledge, attitude and barriers of self-care. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0). Data were expressed in frequencies, mean and percentages. Eighty three patients were participated, of which one fourth of study participants were aged less than 40 years and 42.2% were male. The mean HbA1c value was 8.3% with the range of 5.34-13.54%. Majority of the study participants were Type 2 diabetics (95.2%) and more than half (59%) were on oral hypoglycemic drugs. Results showed high proportion of diabetic retinopathy (43.4%) as compared to neuropathy (21.7%), nephropathy (13.3%) and vasculopathy (18.1%). No significant statistical difference was observed between male and female responses involving diabetic’s knowledge of diabetes self-care, perception and barriers of good glycemic control. Study results concluded that there is a need to provide diabetes self-care education, awareness and after-effects of risk factors for diabetes among the population.

Diabetes, Knowledge, Attitude, Barriers, Self-care