Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders that is characterized by prolonged hyperglycemia. It has become a serious public health problem that threatens the quality of life of an individual with diabetes mellitus and effective therapy relies massively on the compliance of the patient to the therapeutic plan. Statistics from international diabetes federation state that, about 463 million people are living with diabetes globally and about 2.2 million deaths are attributable to high blood glucose and associated complications. Adherence to diet recommendations among diabetic patients is very important for effective therapy as poor or inadequate adherence to diet among patients can be consequential as it leads to the exacerbation of the disease resulting in the development of avoidable complications. This study is aimed at determining the level of adherence to diet recommendations among diabetic patients and to find out if there are specific diet guidelines that have been outlined for them.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used. It targeted type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients of Kitwe teaching hospital and they were assessed by use of a standard questionnaire and a sample size of 217 participants was used. The criteria for selection were based on having been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus more than a year ago and above.
Results: Of a total population of 217 who met the inclusion criteria of which 35 (16.1%) were type 1 diabetes mellitus patients and 182 (83.9%) were type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. The study revealed that males were more adherent with satisfactory adherence of 27.19% and good adherence of 1.38% than the females with satisfactory of 25.35% and good adherence of 0.92%but despite the males recording a higher level of adherence than the females, it was not statistically significant. The study revealed that there was low consumption of fruits (1.8%) and foods rich in fiber (8.8%). According to the survey of the participants, inability to afford the cost of a healthy diet a busy schedule, availability of the healthy foods, old age and disease acceptance were the most cited reasons for poor dietary adherence. Findings indicate that involvement of health professionals in nutritional education was good with 94.47% and 5.53% not being able to state what has been recommended. Age, the type of diabetes, job occupation, duration of diabetes mellitus, knowledge on diet and diet recommended were statistically significant factors associated with adherence.
Conclusion: These results indicate that adherence to diet recommendation is satisfactory but not good even in copperbelt, Zambia. This calls for sensitization programs on the diet recommended for diabetes and its importance in the management of the disease. With hopes that it results into a more proactive approach toward diet recommended and an intentionality to adhere to it.
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