Abstract:
Background: Diabetic patient’s dietary practice is critical to improve glycemic, lipid, and blood
pressure control, thus contributing to reduced risk for potential long-term complications and to
improve the quality of life for individuals with diabetes. However, A significant number of patients
had poor dietary practice. In Ethiopia, more than half of diabetic patients were not practicing a
healthy dietary approach. Therefore, this study was assessed variables such as food taboo,
household food insecurity, fasting status, current medication, depression and anxiety, which were
hardly addressed in previous studies.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the proportion poor dietary practice and associated
factors among type 2 diabetes patients.
Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study was done among type 2 diabetes patients in Arba
Minch General Hospital from 21st April to 20th May 2020. A systematic sampling technique was
used to select 352 patients. Dietary practice was assessed using Modified Morisky scale. The data
were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 for cleaning and analysis.
Descriptive statistics was done to all variables. All variables in bivariable analysis with p-value
<0.25 were entered into a multivariable logistic regression model and statistical significance was
declared at a p-value less than 0.05.
Results: A total of 352 participants were included in the study with 100% response rate. The
proportion of poor dietary practice was found to be 40.6% (95%CI: (35.76%, 46.0%)). In
multivariable analysis after adjusting variables, not having formal education [AOR=3.0; 95%CI:
(1.6, - 5.5)], primary education [AOR=2.2; 95%CI: (1.1, - 4.4), being moderately food insecure
[AOR=5.3; 95%CI: (2.8, - 9.9)] ,depression [AOR=5.9; 95%CI: (3.0, – 11.4)] and having nutrition
education[AOR=2.2; 95%CI:(1.1, – 4.6)] were significantly associated with dietary practice.
Conclusion: Substantial proportions of patients had poor dietary practice. Poor dietary practice
was significantly higher on those with no formal education, secondary educated, food insecure,
depressed patients, and having nutrition education. The results imply the need for strengthening
health information dissemination concerning healthy dietary practice in the form of a package
needs to be provided through already established community structures.
