Health-seeking behavior of patients with diabetes mellitus: A community-based cross-sectional study in an urban area of Pondicherry

Introduction: Health-seeking behavior is a complex outcome of many independent factors operating at individual, family, and community level. Studies have shown that there is an improvement in compliance to treatment and a decrease in the complications with an increase in patients' knowledge about the disease and its complications. The current study was done to explore the health-seeking behavior among patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM). Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among patients diagnosed with DM in an urban area of Pondicherry. A simple random sampling method was used to recruit the study participants in the community. A predesigned structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the participants by conducting face-to-face interview. Data entry was done in EpiData and the analysis was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 21. Results: In the present study, 109 participants were included and interviewed. Majority of participants (29.4%) belonged to 61–70 years. Most of the respondents (56.8%) seek treatment from a private health facility. The most common comorbidity reported was hypertension (59.6%). Participants shared that unhealthy diet (55%), family history (25.7%), sedentary lifestyle (23.9%), and obesity (17.4%) were the risk factors of DM. Only 12.8% of participants were testing their blood glucose level at monthly intervals. Eight participants were on irregular medication, and among them, three participants told that they were irregular on treatment because their blood glucose levels were normal. Conclusion: The level of awareness on diabetes among the participants is not satisfactory though the overall treatment-seeking behavior is found to be satisfactory among the study participants. It is recommended to plan and implement various Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities in the study area to increase the level awareness