Background

[Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease; on the long term it will lead to a serious damage to certain body organs such as: heart, nerves, eyes, blood vessels and kidneys. Saudi Arabia is considered in top ten countries in the prevalence of DM globally.]

Aims

[To estimate the level of knowledge and practice in type 2 diabetic patients regarding the effect of lifestyle habits. Also, to estimate the knowledge of diabetic smokers toward smoking cessation benefits and its relation in decreasing diabetic complication, and to estimate the ratio between men and women about the knowledge and practice regarding the effect of lifestyle habits.]

Methods

 [A cross-sectional study was done using a structured questionnaire amongst 332 type 2 diabetic patients seen at the outpatient clinics in 5 hospitals across Riyadh city. Baseline characteristics of the participants were obtained and their knowledge, and practice regarding lifestyle modification were assessed.]

Results

 [ Out of 332 participants almost 84.6% of participants know that physical exercise improves diabetic symptoms but unfortunately 49.4% doesn’t exercise at all. We also found that almost (45.1%) of the participants didn't know about the effect of cigarette smoking/Alcohol on the progression of diabetes, and (50%) of active smokers had no awareness about its effect on the progression of the diseases. Also (13.6%) of the participants didn’t know about the effect of diet on the progression of Type 2 diabetes.]

Conclusion

 [ Despite the high level of awareness on the effects of lifestyles in DM2 patients, in addition to lack of physical limitations, few proportions of patients translated that knowledge into routine physical activity.]