Comparison of adherence to the diet of women with gestational diabetes under diet therapy between the groups of with and without okra powder

Following the diabetic diet is of the most important challenges in controlling gestational diabetes. Maybe people receive a complementary therapy alongside with diet observance and found themselves more at risk, and have more adherence to the diet to control blood sugar during pregnancy. Therefore, this study was performed with aim to compare adherence to the diet of women with gestational diabetes between the groups of with and without okra powder.

This clinical trial was performed in 2018-2019 on 60 women with gestational diabetes mellitus who were under treatment with diet. The subjects were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Usual diet of gestational diabetes was trained in person for both groups. The intervention group in addition to this used 6 gr of okra powder daily at breakfast and lunch. Adherence to dietary questionnaire was completed at baseline and four weeks after the study by the research unit. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 21) and independent t-test, paired-t, Mann-Whitney test, Wilcoxon and covariance analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Changes in diet adherence score after the intervention than before it had no significant difference in the intervention group compared to the control group (P=0.087). In the intergroup comparison in both groups, change in diet adherence after the intervention than before it was significant (P<0.001).

In the present study, the use of supplemental medicine did not affect diet adherence. Diet adherence in the group which received complementary medicine in addition to diet had no difference compared with the group which only received the diet.