Fasting and Diabetes: An Interventional Approach to Enhance Knowledge and Self-Care during Ramadan

Background . The aim of this study was to assess the impact of educational interventions on the knowledge and self-care practices of diabetes patients who fast during Ramadan. People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were selected from outpatient clinic at Dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital. Educational intervention was delivered before and during Ramadan. Disease knowledge and self-care practices were assessed by using Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire and Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to analyse the changes before and after educational intervention. Results. There were 186 diabetes patients involved in this study with average age of 59.77 ± 9.64 years, body mass index was overweight at 24.78 ± 3.62 kg/m ² and poor HbA1c at 9.21 ± 2.62 %. The DKQ scores spotted a substantial improvement, with a vast majority (92.47%) achieving the good knowledge category compared to the previous percentage of 30.65%. There was also a significant change in DMSQ scores before and after the educational intervention. Pre-intervention, 83.87% of DMSQ scores were optimal self-care practice, while 16.13% were suboptimal. After intervention, it changed significantly, with 94.08% of those characterized as having optimal self-care habits. Three items of DMSQ subscales showed significant changes which were eating behavior (p 0.046), medication taking (p 0.001), and glucose monitoring (p 0.001). Conclusion. The study suggests that the educational intervention effectively improved both the knowledge and self-care practices of diabetes patients, as evidenced by the significant positive changes in knowledge and self-practice scores. This implies the potential for such interventions to contribute positively to the management and overall well-being of individuals with diabetes.