Abstract

Objective:
This study aimed to measure healthcare professionals (HCPs) diabetes related attitude in Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia.
Methods:
A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Two parts of a self-administered questionnaire were completed by 304 healthcare professionals. It consisted of two parts. The first one was about the sociodemographic characteristics, whereas the second part consist of the third version of the Diabetes Attitude Scale (DAS-3).
Result:
Over 7 months, 308 questionnaires were collected (84.4% response rate). Majority were females. Most participants belonged to the age group of 31-40 years (61.2%). The responses to the Diabetes Attitude Scale – 3 showed highest score (best performance) in the need for special training subscale (4.43±0.50), followed by patient autonomy (3.88±0.46), then the psychological impact of DM (3.69±0.49), than seriousness of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) (3.49±0.54) and the least was the value of tight control (3.31±0.50).
Conclusion:
This study suggested the need to increase continuous medical education (CME) in the field of diabetes and more research to compare the attitude of healthcare professionals in different parts of Saudi Arabia.

Key words: Diabetes attitudes, healthcare professionals, diabetes, physicians, continuing education programs.