EC Diabetes and Metabolic Research

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, involving inappropriately elevated blood glucose levels. The risks facing people with diabetes are heightened during Ramadan. These include hypoglycaemia, hyperosmolar hyperglycaemia, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), dehydration and thrombosis. Family Medicine Registrars play a major role in managing diabetes in Ramadan, and educating patients who intend to fast.

Objectives: To assess the awareness, attitude and practice of family medicine registrars of the Sudan Medical Specialization Board about diabetes and Ramadan guidelines in 2022.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional internet-based study of random sample, was conducted among 285 family medicine registrars between October 2022 and December 2022 and the data was analyzed using SPSS program version 24.0.

Results: The majority of participants in our sample (88.8%) were females with 57.2% in the 4^th year of rotation. Nearly two-thirds (64.9%) of participants work in health centers, while only one third (35.1%) work in hospitals. Slightly more than half (56.5%) practicing 7 years or more. Only 17.2% were fully confident to manage diabetes in Ramadan, while, the majority 56.1% were both just or fairly confident. More than one third of the participants (37.2%) follow their common sense and good clinical practice as guidelines for management of diabetes during Ramadan, (24.6%) follow their reading and research in literature using multiple sources, and only (22.8%) follow ADA reports. While their awareness of the different categories of management strategies was variable.

Conclusion: Family Medicine Registrars in Sudanese Medical Specifications Board demonstrated variable levels of knowledge, attitude and practice about care of patients with diabetes during Ramadan, but the overall assessment shows that 53.3% of them had low level of knowledge.

 Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus (DM); Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA); Ramadan Guidelines

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