Predictors of poor knowledge and attitude towards Diabetes Mellitus among undergraduate students in a public university in Malaysia

Introduction: In Malaysia, the prevalence of diabetic mellitus has nearly tripled over the past two decades among young generations. This study aimed to determine the percentageof poor knowledge and attitude of diabetic mellitus and its associated factors based on the social-ecological model among undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students. Stratified cluster sampling was used to select the respondents from eight faculties. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the factors associated with the poor knowledge and attitude respectively. Result: There were a total of 448 undergraduate students with recruited in this study, with 58.5% and 51.6% of respondents had poor knowledge and attitude respectively. Majority of the respondents were third to fifth year of study (69.0%), living outside of campus (66.3%),Islam (60.7%), males (57.6%), and Malay (52.7%). Multiple logistic regression demonstrated that age group (OR= 1.931, 95% CI: 1.108, 3.367, P=0.020), diabetes status (OR = 8.564, 95%CI: 3.835, 19.125, P<0.001), awareness of blood sugar level (OR =0.321, 95%CI: 0.176, 0.587, P<0.001) , compared to my age mates, I am less likely to get DM (OR = 0.315, 95%CI: 0.151, 0.658, P=0.002), I should not worry about DM until I am 45 years old (OR = 5.561, 95%CI: 1.821, 16.982, P=0.003) , DM could be a big threat to my health (OR = 6.246, 95%CI: 2.382, 16.375, P<0.001), source of diabetes information from friends(OR = 2.952,95%CI: 1.512, 5.764, P =0.002) and teachers (OR=5.947,95%CI: 2.775, 12.745, P<0.001), DM supports from the university level (OR = 0.422, 95%CI: 0.236, 0.756, P=0.004), awareness of duration treatment for diabetes(OR = 0.077, 95%CI: 0.030, 0.202, P<0.001) , total score daily intake of food groups (OR= 0.915,95%CI: 0.854, 0.980, P=0.011), and total score sedentary activities (OR= 1.153, 95%CI: 1.067, P<0.001) were significantly associated with probability of having poor knowledgeon DM, whereas do any of your family members have or had diabetes (OR=0.463, 95%CI: 0.219, 0.976, P=0.043), workshop/webinar/intervention (OR = 10.591, 95%CI: 3.929, 28.547, P<0.001), source of diabetes information from teachers (OR = 21.983, 95%CI: 12.028, 40.177, P<0.001), total knowledge score category (OR= 4.382, 95%CI: 1.994,9.628, P<0.001), total score sedentary activities (OR= 1.224, 95%CI: 1.090, 1.375, P=0.001), and total score physical activity practices (OR= 0.818, 95%CI: 0.717, 0.933, P=0.003) were significantly associated with probability of having poor attitude on DM. Conclusion: On overall, half of the students had poor knowledge and attitude on DM. Government and university level are suggested to devise appropriate program to improve their knowledge and attitude on DM, to reducing their chances to get DM in the future.

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