Dietary Knowledge among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes—Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Dietary management is considered as a major step in assessing a patient’s knowledge related to nutritional aspects, treatment, and complications of diabetes. Diabetes patients frequently face difficulty in identifying the recommended diet, including its quality and quantity. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), sedentary lifestyle, along with food choices and portion sizes, have increased considerably and this has resulted in the soaring risk of diabetes. In addition, there is paucity of literature focusing on the Dietary Knowledge (DK) of type 2 diabetics in KSA. The study aimed to assess and evaluate the DK of type 2 diabetics. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 type 2 diabetics using a valid and reliable self-prepared questionnaire comprising of 21 questions. Results showed that type 2 diabetics had an overall poor DK (28.57%). Sub-group analysis further revealed that diabetes patients had poor knowledge related to the consumption of carbohydrates and food choices, whereas they had good knowledge related to lipids and fats, proteins and food types. The role of diet in controlling of diabetes is considered imperative, but still, diabetes patients are unaware how they should approach this issue. The patient empowerment approach can be used to counsel patients with a poor DK. Primary care physicians and dietitians should work together and carry out individualized, tailored and patient-centered dietary education sessions.

Dietary Attitude of Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Although the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) is high in Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Oman), there remains a lack of understanding of the importance of dietary behavior in diabetes management among patients [10]. Understanding the behavior of patients with diabetes towards the disease requires knowledge of their DA.…”

Nutritional Status Measurement Instruments for Diabetes: A Systematic Psychometric Review

“…Of these, 2195 articles were excluded after evaluation. Subsequently, 22 full-text articles were evaluated, and 8 articles were excluded after reviewing the full text [ 11 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Thus, a total of 14 studies were included in this systematic review.…”

“…Patients with diabetes usually face difficulties in identifying an adequate diet, both in quality and quantity [10]. Food selection and dietary pattern are influenced by the patient's knowledge of a recommended diet [11]; therefore, dietary evaluation is of utmost importance for health promotion, disease prevention and individual treatment plans in patients with diabetes [10,12]. For this reason, there is a need for briefing tools that allow health professionals with a general knowledge of nutrition to assess the dietary intake of their patients and establish dietary goals based on the evaluation obtained [13,14].…”

The dietary knowledge measurement instruments in diabetes: A systematic psychometric review

“…Subsequently, 24 full‐text articles were evaluated. Of these, two articles were excluded after reviewing the full text (W. Sami et al., 2020; Samuel‐Hodge et al., 2002). Finally, 22 studies were included in this systematic review.…”

“…Patients with DM have great difficulties carrying out correct dietary management with regard to quality and quantity (Jalilian et al., 2019). The selection of meals and eating routines are influenced by the dietary knowledge of patients with DM, which makes it difficult for them to self‐manage their diet (W. Sami et al., 2020). Dietary knowledge in patients with DM type 1 or 2 can be relevant for improving patient outcomes.…”