Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Primary School Teachers towards Diabetic Emergencies, Baghdad

ABSTRACT: Background: Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease that characterized by elevated level of blood glucose, which in turn over time leads to serious damage to many organs. In Iraq the prevalence of type 1 DM in primary school children was 159 per 100,000. This put more pressure on schools and teachers as children may have first complication at school. Aim: To assess the primary school teachers' knowledge, attitude and practice of the clinical presentation of the life-threatening complications of diabetes mellitus among school children. Subjects and Method: This was a cross sectional study conducted in twenty primary school in Al Rusafa district, Baghdad, Iraq during a period from 1st August to end of November 2020. A convenient sample of 400 teachers agreed to participate and met the inclusion criteria. The responses were collected online and incomplete questionnaires were excluded from the analysis, the collected data were introduced to Microsoft excel sheet (2016) and loaded into SPSS-V24 statistical program. Results: Out of 400 teachers, 357 teachers completed questionnaire with a response rate of (89.25%). There was 59% of the studied sample had fair knowledge level, 65% of had good attitude level, and 77% of the studied sample had poor practice level. The age, work duration, specialty, qualification, presence of DM students in class, and school DM records were statistically significant associated with knowledge, attitude, and practice of teachers. Conclusion: The knowledge score was fair; attitude was good and practice of teachers regarding diabetes mellitus type 1 student’s poor. The age, work duration, specialty, qualification, presence of DM students in class, and school DM records were positively impacting the knowledge, attitude, and practice of teachers. Keywords: Diabetes, school, knowledge, attitude, practic