Eureka! Institutional Repository

Diabetes mellitus is a long lasting disease of high frequency of display to the human population and is attributed to the total or partial lack of insulin. There are four different types of diabetes mellitus: type 1, type 2, gestational diabetes and some other special diabetic types that are included in one group. Like any other illness, diabetes afflicts people of different race and religion and therefore is dealt with according to their values and ideals. Different religions affect significantly the health treatment and particularly the existence of diabetes mellitus both at the level of therapy as well as at the level of psychology. For that reason, many programs and interventions dealing with diabetes have been implemented on the basis of each religion, in order to strengthen the power of the patient through his/her faith to God. A special case is the Muslim Diabetics who desire to feast during the Ramadan period, but they are unable to do so due to the strict eating requirements and the regular intake of medicines that the disease imposes on the afflicted ones. Hence, specific instructions and programs have been developed that help the Muslim Diabetics overcome these obstacles so that they can take part in the feast without risking their health. The objective of the present study is the comparison of the levels of knowledge, understanding as well as of the ways of coping with the disease between Christians and Muslims that suffer from diabetes. According to the results, in the majority of the questions given both Christians and Muslims did not exhibit great differences. Nevertheless, there was much knowledge with regard to the way of forestalling and dealing with diabetes, that while it was obvious to the majority of Christians, Muslims were unaware of it. This lack of knowledge can lead to wrong practices and by extension to serious diabetic complications.