Background
: Not only the drug therapy. But also diet & exercise therapy have to be done in the control for NIDDM patients. But the control of DM is dependent on how much the patients practice it. Therefore authors surveyed knowledge & practice about DM diet & exercise of NIDDM patients.

Methods : We serveyed 104 NIDDM patients who visited family medicine outpatient offices of two tertiary hopital & internal medicine outpatient office of one secondary hospital located in Seoul from June, 1994 through september, 1994. The questionnaire consisted of the patient's general charac-teristics, family environment, attitude toward DM management, exercise, diet education knowledge and degree of practice.
Result : The patients consisted of 58(55.7%) men and 46(44.2%) women. The mean age of men patients was 53 years, and that of women patientswas 56 years. The average duration of the disease was 4.4 year. The number of patients who had participated in DM education was 56(53%). The number of patients who thought the diet therapy was important was 86(85%) The patients who thought it was not important was 4(3.9%). Those who didn't think about it was 11(10%). The number of patients who thought the exercise was important was 92(90%). The patients who thought it was 7(6.8%) The number of patients who practiced diet therapy well was 13(12%). The patients who didn't practice it well was 89(88%). The most common reason why they didn't practice was that it was too hard to practice actually. The number of patients who exercised well was 36(34%), and who didn't exercise well was 67(64%). the most common reason why they didn't practice it was that it was too bothersome to exercise. In the cases of family members concerned to the patients management, the patients practiced diet well. But it was not related with DM education, knowledge about DM and academic background of patients. In the cases of family members' concern with the patients management and in the cases of men, the patients patients practiced exercise.

Conclusion : Nearly half of NIDDM patients never participated in DM education. The patients knew well about how immportant DM diet & exercise was, but they didn't practice it. therfore reinfor-cement in education programs for behavior modification is needed. support from family menbers is needed because their role in managment of DM patient is important.