The Effectiveness of Education on Awareness and Knowledge of Childhood Diabetes amongst Medical Students in Port Harcourt

Aim: To determine the awareness and knowledge of childhood diabetes amongst medical students and effectiveness of education on their knowledge.
Study Design: A cross sectional study at the department of Paediatrics and child health of the college of Health Sciences, in a Nigerian University in August 2014. All 86 fifth year medical students were eligible for the study.
Methodology: We studied 62 fifth year medical students during a block posting in Paediatrics. All Students who attended the childhood paediatric lectures completed a questionnaire before and after the lecture. Questionnaire was used to determine the awareness and knowledge of childhood diabetes amongst the students and effectiveness of education on their knowledge.
Results: A total of 62 students completed the questionnaire before and after the lecture on childhood diabetes with a response rate of 72%. Males accounted for 58.1% of the study population. Only 51.6% of the students acknowledged that diabetes can occur at any age group during childhood while 77.4% identified insulin deficiency or disorder as the cause of diabetes in children. 25 to 27% of students could not determine the cut off value of fasting and random blood glucose respectively that defines diabetes. On management practices, knowledge of diabetic education being the most important aspect of management of diabetes was answered correctly by only 10% while as many as 62% said insulin should be discontinued in sick diabetic children. There was a statistically significant positive impact of education on the knowledge of childhood diabetes with regards to the knowledge of age of occurrence of diabetes mellitus (P =.005), most important aspect of management of DM (P=.001), definitive diagnosis of DM (P= .02), food restriction (P=.002).
Conclusion: Knowledge of some aspects of childhood diabetes mellitus is poor amongst fifth year medical students, there was however a positive impact of education on their knowledge.