Knowledge and Awareness of Diabetes Mellitus: A Case Study of a Large Private University in Botswana

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate awareness and knowledge of diabetes mellitus, an important global disease, among staff at a large private university in Botswana. Findings point to a general lack of awareness and knowledge about the disease among the university staff. Respondents consisted of 63% lecturing and 37% non-lecturing staff. The distribution by gender was roughly 50-50. Overall awareness of diabetes mellitus was 66% of respondents awareness being higher for females at (34%) compared to men’s 32%. Knowledge about the important risk factors for diabetes was low. Knowledge about the important symptoms of the disease was not impressive. This is an important factor in early diagnosis and onset of management. Lack of knowledge about curability of the disease was very high at 85% of respondents. Of the possible pathological effects of the disease, respondents seemed to be more aware of the development blindness than others. These statistics may be indicative of a more distributed problem in country given the fact that such results came from “enlightened” members of the community.