Adherence of Doctors to Diabetes Clinical Guidelines in Sudan

<i>Background</i>: Adherence to the clinical guidelines improves patients’ outcome by providing evidence-based care. This study aimed to assess adherence of doctors to diabetes clinical guidelines in Sudan. <i>Method</i>: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2022 to April 2023 on a purposive convenience sample of 465 doctors. Doctors’ adherence to diabetes guidelines was measured through an online questionnaire. Data was analyzed using frequency tables. The Chi square test used to determine associations between categorized variables. All statistical tests were considered statistically significant when <i>p</i> <i>value</i> < 0.05. <i>Results</i>: Of the 465 respondents, 76.8% were familiar with diabetes clinical guidelines, 72.7% of them implement guidelines recommendations, but only 46.5% were following the updated guideline recommendations. Only 44.5% of the surveyed doctors were aware of the local Sudanese diabetes guidelines. lack of regular training programs (17.9%), service cost (16.0%) and patients factors (15.6%) were the most common barriers to the guideline implementation. The adherence rate was positively associated with the job title, <i>p</i> value = 0.001. <i>Conclusion</i>: The study indicated low implementation to the updated diabetes guidelines among Sudanese doctors. To improve guidelines adherence, the study recommends launching training programs and continuous doctors’ assessment, along with issuing regulations and policies to ensure the use of the updated guidelines. The national guidelines need be well disseminated and regularly updated. Regular clinical audit and establishing the clinical governance are required to improve guidelines implementation in Sudan.