Hameed Mumtaz Durrani, Ramesh Kumar, Salma Mumtaz Durrani, Anwarul Haq.
World Health Organization diabetic care guidelines: knowledge and practices of general practitioners in private clinics of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;3(2):19-22.

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is growing at an alarming rate all over the world particularly in Pakistan.In 1995, Pakistan had an estimated 4 million diabetics and was eighth in the world in terms of prevalence. It is projected that by 2025, Pakistan willmove to the fourth highest prevalence with 15 million diabetics. General practitioners (GPs) constitute the back bone of any health care system and providing healthcare services to the community .The World Health Organization (WHO)has a standard of care guideline for people with diabetes which is consideredto be the 'Gold Standard'.This study assesses the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of GPs the WHO guidelines for the management and care of diabetes mellitus in Rawalpindi city . Methods: In the study , a total of 100 medical doctors registered with Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) were included in the study from four towns of Rawalpindi city for interview through semi-structured questionnaires for their knowledge and practices regarding diabetics as per WHO guidelines. Data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Results: The mean age of the GPs was 43.3 years ± 5.44 (SD), mean duration of clinical practice amongst the GPs was 14.73years ± 5.48 (SD). The average daily practicing time for the GPs was 8.1 hours ± 2.1 (SD) with an average of 48 patients per GP per day . Twenty one per cent (21%) of the patients had diabetes. Most 85% of the GPs had Knowledge regarding the complication of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and 78% had Knowledge about sign and symptoms of DM. Conclusion: Study concluded that the knowledge of GPs regarding DM was good but they were not following the WHO guidelines for treatment of DM.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com