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Comparison of Type 2 Diabetes knowledge between Singaporean university students in Singapore and in the United States
Author(s) -
Lee Christine Pei Ching,
Tam Chick F
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a157-c
Subject(s) - the internet , medical education , strengths and weaknesses , type 2 diabetes , public health , knowledge level , medicine , public university , psychology , family medicine , diabetes mellitus , nursing , political science , mathematics education , social psychology , computer science , public administration , world wide web , endocrinology
The purpose of the study was to compare type 2 diabetes knowledge between Singaporean university students (N=104) studying in Singapore (SUSS) and Singaporean university students (N=28) studying in the United States (SUSUS). A questionnaire with five sections was distributed to both groups. SPSS was used to analyze the data and an independent t‐test was performed. The results showed that there were no significant differences between two groups when questions were asked regarding general knowledge, symptoms, complications, risk factors, treatment and management of type 2 diabetes; however, when obtaining knowledge from sources such as the internet (Mean 1.86 vs 1.71) and health professionals (Mean 1.89 vs 1.82) which provide information regarding diabetes were significantly different (p< 0.05) between two groups (SUSS vs SUSUS, respectively). Literature reviews have shown that there has been much effort and time spent on educating the general public in Singapore, however only one study has been done to investigate the effectiveness of public education. Conducting a similar study on Singaporean university students will enable health educators to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the public education and further improve the education methods by helping to focus on areas which need more improvements. If living overseas has created more awareness/knowledge of type 2 diabetes, the results indicated that being overseas does not necessary mean that more awareness/knowledge is created. In addition more SUSS were exposed to the knowledge of type 2 diabetes through the internet/health professional sources in Singapore.