Dietary knowledge and practice and its associated factors among type 2 diabetes patients on follow-up at public hospitals of Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia

OBJECTIVES: This study tried to assess the level of dietary knowledge and practice and associated factors among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in public hospitals of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 253 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients visiting follow-up clinic in public hospitals selected by systematic random sampling. Primary data were collected by face-to-face interview and checklist. The collected data were entered into SPSS version 22 and analyzed using proportion, percentage, and mean and standard deviation. Bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify candidate variables affecting dietary practice. Finally, all candidate independent variables were further adjusted on multivariate regression analysis with adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval to identify factors independently associated with dietary practice. p-value ⩽0.05 declared as level of significance. RESULTS: The level of poor dietary practice among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients was found to be 53.8%. Around 78.8% of participants had fasting blood sugar level ⩾130 mg/dL, and 52.8% found to have poor dietary knowledge. Moreover, there was no up-to-date nutritional guideline in follow-up clinic. Not getting nutrition advice from doctors/nurses, low duration of follow-up, lack of family support, and despondency were significantly associated with poor dietary practice (p-value < 0.05). CONCLUSION: More than half of diabetes patients had poor dietary practice, which is in contrary with international recommendations of diabetic self-care. Habit of eating fruits and vegetables was poorly practiced and also patients’ knowledge of recommended nutrition was poor. Therefore, provision of robust nutritional education and counseling service, a system to strengthen family support as well as psychosocial support, is highly recommended.