Effects of nutrition education on knowledge and attitudes of type 2 diabetic patients

Diabetes Melitus is one of the most common metabolic complications that is rapidly growing. Thus, a proper preventive measure is necessary to control the disease. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of nutrition education on knowledge and attitudes of type 2 diabetic patients. This prospective study was conducted in Rasht Razi Hospital on 135 randomly selected individuals with type 2 diabetes, aged between 35-70 years diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after 35 years of age. Intervention consisted of 64 contact hours during several months. The intervention involved 3 months of weekly instructional sessions on nutrition, self monitoring of blood glucose, exercise and other self-care topics, in addition to 3 months of biweekly support sessions to promote behavior changes. At the end, dietary behaviors, knowledge, attitudes and fat intake of the cases were analyzed. To do so, the differences between the case's behaviors before and after intervention were evaluated by means of statistical tests of ANOVA and student-t tests at the significant level of P≤0.05. Significant reduction was seen in fat intake among the cases compared with those in the control group. This reduction was maintained during 3-months of follow up assessment. Likewise, significant changes in dietary patterns, which were also maintained after the study, were reported. These changes were not observed in dietary pattern replacement. This model of health promotion seems to have the potential for decreasing fat and improving dietary patterns in type 2 diabetic patients.