Diabetes is one of the most challenging public health problems in the 21st century throughout the world. It is a chronic disease in which high blood sugar occurs when the pancreas does not generate enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. There are three categories of diabetes mellitus: type I, type II, and gestational diabetes mellitus. Type II diabetes mellitus is the most common form of diabetes. It is very important to know about the awareness level of a disease condition in a population, which plays a vital role in future development, early detection, and prevention of disease. Hence, the objectives of this review are to examine various studies to explore the level of knowledge, attitude, compliance, and self-care behavior of diabetic patients, which are major determinants that need to incorporate in the effective strategies to manage and prevent diabetes and its complications. A search of studies (1980-2018) using the electronic database from the National Medical Library of India, National Institute of Science and Communication And Information Resource (NISCAIR) library of India and other sources were carried out.