Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Its Knowledge and Associated Factors among United Arab Emirates University Students

Bashir, Maryam Mohammed; Ahmed, Luai A.; Alshamsi, Meera R.; Almahrooqi, Sara; Alyammahi, Taif; Alshehhi, Shaikha Mohammed S; Alhammadi, Waad I.; Alhammadi, Fatima H.; Al‐Rifai, Rami H.; Al-Maskari, Fatma

doi:10.3390/ijerph19148381

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 40 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…Another study in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, expressed that gestational diabetes knowledge among women was 77.7% [ 19 ]. A similar result (79.7%) was reported in a United Arab Emirates study [ 20 ]. Participants have inadequate awareness and knowledge about gestational diabetes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Knowledge of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Among Adult Females in Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Almatrafi,

Sekhar

2024

Cureus

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Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a carbohydrate intolerance of variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy; it does not include diabetics who become pregnant or women who become lactosuric. Knowledge of this problem among the public will promote its prevention, screening, and treatment strategies. This study aims to assess the knowledge of GDM regarding its risk factors, screening, treatment, and complications among women in the Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted among 617 females aged 18 years and older through convenience sampling between October 2022 and January 2023. An online questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA) and WhatsApp (Meta, Menlo Park, CA, USA). Data was entered, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 27 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Informed consent was obtained from every participant, and the participants' information was kept confidential. Results In this study, 52.4% of the women (323/617) had moderate knowledge, and 27.6% (170/617) had excellent knowledge about GDM. Only 13.3% (n = 82) knew the optimum time (24 to 28 weeks of gestational age) for gestational diabetes screening in the absence of risk factors. Moreover, 44.6% (n = 275) knew that insulin is one of the treatments for gestational diabetes, while 45.4% (n = 280) knew that gestational diabetes increases a baby’s risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) later in life. A statistically significant association was found between the development of GDM with multigravida (19.5%), a BMI of >25 (15%), and age 31 to 45 years (17.8%), with corresponding p-values of 0.001, 0.0001, and 0.0001, respectively. Conclusion In this study, almost four-fifths of the study population had moderate to excellent knowledge regarding GDM. However, there is a need to enhance knowledge about optimum screening time and insulin use for gestational diabetes treatment. Therefore, encouraging the existing population to learn more about diabetes education programs and health promotional measures should be undertaken periodically. Further studies are required to support this study's findings.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Knowledge of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Among Adult Females in Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Almatrafi,

Sekhar

2024

Cureus

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Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding gestational diabetes mellitus among pregnant women: A cross-sectional study

Ugwu,

Ene

2023

Int J Diabetes Dev Ctries

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Measuring public attitudes towards people living with chronic diseases in Arabic-speaking populations: adaptation and development of the Social Stigma Scale of Chronic Diseases (SSS-CD)

et al. 2023

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Background A large proportion of the population in Arab countries suffer from chronic diseases. According to the statistics by the Global Health Estimates, chronic illnesses contribute by 71% to total deaths in the Arab region. While chronic illnesses have been demonstrated to carry high levels of social stigma, it is only recently that little research attention has been given to this topic in the Arab world. It is well-established that the social stigma construct is culturally-dependent. Therefore, the lack of an Arabic measure highlighted the urgent need for developing a culturally adapted and valid instrument to assess social stigma toward people living with chronic diseases. In this study, we aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Arabic translation, adaptation and development of “the Social Stigma Scale of Chronic Diseases” (SSS-CD). Method Fifteen items derived from the literature and assessing social stigma towards chronic diseases have been administered to 570 Arabic-speaking adults from the Lebanese general population (aged 24.59 ± 6.75years; 68.6% women). Items were translated into Arabic using a forward-backward translation method. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using a principal-axis EFA on the first split-half subsample, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tested on the model extracted from the EFA on the second split-half subsample, were conducted to examine the construct validity of the SSS-CD. Fit indices were deemed adequate if the normed model chi-square (χ²/df) ≤ 3, the Steiger-Lind root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) ≤ 0.08, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) and the comparative fit index (CFI) ≥ 0.90. Results Findings revealed that the 10-item SSS-CD has a unidimensional factor structure, with the following fit indices: χ2/df = 92.95/34 = 2.73, RMSEA = 0.077 (90% CI 0.059, 0.096), SRMR = 0.062, CFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.919. A good internal consistency was demonstrated by a McDonald’s omega value of 0.73 for the total score. Findings also supported invariance across gender, with men exhibiting higher levels of social stigma attached to chronic diseases than women. All three dimensions of stigmatization (social, psychological and evolutionary stigmatization) were positively correlated with SSS-CD scores (Social self-interest [r = .40; p < .001], Evolutionary self-interest [r = .37; p < .001], Psychological self-interest [r = .42; p < .001]), demonstrating relatively strong convergent validity. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the SSS-CD has robust psychometric qualities. We thus preliminarily suggest that the scale is valid, reliable and suitable for use among Arabic-speaking people from the general population to measure public attitudes towards people living with chronic diseases. Providing this psychometrically sound measure will hopefully enable to foster research in this area in order to draw a clear overview of the prevalence and characteristics of social stigma attached to chronic diseases in Arabic-speaking communities. However, given that this was the first study to examine the psychometric properties of the SSS-CD, the present findings and conclusions should be considered tentative pending future cross-national validation studies.

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Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Its Knowledge and Associated Factors among United Arab Emirates University Students

Cited by 4 publications

References 40 publications

Knowledge of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Among Adult Females in Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Knowledge of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Among Adult Females in Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding gestational diabetes mellitus among pregnant women: A cross-sectional study

Measuring public attitudes towards people living with chronic diseases in Arabic-speaking populations: adaptation and development of the Social Stigma Scale of Chronic Diseases (SSS-CD)

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