[A study of the knowledge of diabetics (author's transl)]

One hundred and forty five diabetics regularly attending a hospital clinic were submitted to a questionnaire assessing their knowledge of diabetes. The patients had previously been instructed in urine glucose analysis, insulin injections, diet and hypoglycaemic attacks. Despite this, they appeared to be neither better controlled nor more painstaking with their disease than before education. The replies to the questionnaire revealed that the patients had poor understanding of the symptoms and of the long-term complications of diabetes, of the criteria of good control, and of the proportion of carbohydrate in common food. Moreover, they held many fallacious ideas with regard to these concepts. The results suggest that although these diabetics had acquired sufficient knowledge to avoid the acute metabolic disturbances of diabetes and to lead a day-to-day existence with a minimum of harmful effects, they were not properly aware of the long-term consequences of diabetes and of the overall strategy for the good management of their disease. An improved educational strategy appears necessary to enable diabetics to take better care of themselves.