Individual Diabetes Nutrition Education Can Help Management for Type II Diabetes

Woo, Ye Ji; Lee, Hyun Sook; Kim, Wha Young

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of the individual nutrition education for type 2 diabetes who participate the diabetes buffet. The subjects were 66 patients and divided into education (n = 34) and control groups (n = 32). The mean age of education and control groups were 59.8 and 56.6 years old, respectively. There were no differences in age and body mass index (BMI) between two groups. Initial glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), post prandial plasma glucose (PP2), total plasma cholesterol, and blood pressure were not different between two groups. But fasting blood sugar (FBS) was higher in education group than in control group. On completion of the study, the education group showed significant decreases in body weight, BMI, FBS and PP2, however, the control group showed no changes in body weight, BMI and PP2, and showed a significant increase in FBS. Initial calorie and protein intakes of the education group did not meet the prescribed amount, however, mineral and vitamin intakes were higher than estimated average requirement (EAR). By the end of study, calorie and protein intakes were significantly increased to meet the prescription. In order to evaluate the effect of diet education, awareness of calorie requirement was used as an index of understanding diet prescription. The degree of awareness of calorie requirement was dependent on age: younger patients showed higher awareness than older subjects. The subject who showed better understanding of diet prescription showed lower levels of HbA1c, FBS, and PP2 at the end of the experiment period. The results of this study clearly show that individual diabetes diet education is effective to make the patient understand their diet prescription, and is effective to control body weight and blood sugar level. Awareness of calorie requirement could be used as an index of understanding of prescribed diet. Since age is an important variable to determine the awareness of calorie requirement, different strategies of nutrition education should be developed for different age groups, especially patients over 70 years old.