Eureka! Institutional Repository

The purpose: Investigation of people with Diabetes Mellitus type 1, concerning knowledge in matters like disease’s management, diet and physical exercise and whether they have practice in their daily lives. Methodology: This is a survey based on the use of a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 62 people; 22 men and 40 women, aged between 6 to 69 years. The questionnaires that patients were called to answer, included questions that concerned their physical exercise, diet and their knowledge of the disease as long as the use of insulin, the orthorexia and demographics. Results: In the samples majority, Diabetes Mellitus is newly diagnosed (82,3%), while in 53,2% of the sample glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is lower than 7. 71% of the sample has controlled their Diabete’s rate. The average time that an intense physical activity was 67,09 minutes for the last seven days. The mean of minutes per day for sample’s walking days was 64,27 and the mean of time that was spent with no physical activity (sedentary) on an ordinary day was 6,59 hours per day. The sample has moderate physical activity (42,37%). Concerning the diet, the patients that participated in the study had relatively a good compliance in Mediterranean diet and a mean’s percentage of 30,48. There is a statistically significant difference between the groups of the sample (marital status) concerning their compliance in Mediterranean diet with p=0,02. Furthermore, there is one more statistically significant difference in the divorced people and the ones who are in a cohabitation, concerning their compliance in the Mediterranean diet with p=0,016 and p=0,018. 62,90% of the sample has a moderate general knowledge for Diabetes, 69,35% moderate knowledge for insulin’s use and 67,74% a good total knowledge for Diabetes. An important difference in statistics came up in the score of knowledge for insulin’s use between the four age groups (p=0,021). Moreover, there is also important difference statistically between the marital status in the third score of the total knowledge (p=0,043). In the end, according to the mean 33,90, it is considered that the sample has indication of proper appetite. Conclusions: The need for patients to be educated and sensitized to issues of physical activity and diet is obvious. It is important to be known the benefits of exercise and quality diet, both in diabetes disease and in maintaining health. It is desirable the counselor to evaluate the patient’s goals, desires, interests and obstacles so as to make a goal plantogether. So, it will be easy for the patient to be improved as he tries to reach his own goals.