Browsing by Author "Muketha, Maureen Karimi"

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    Adherence to Dietary Recommendations in the Management of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Attending Diabetic Clinic at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2024-02) Muketha, Maureen Karimi
    Type 2 Diabetes is among the biggest contributors of deaths and morbidity worldwide. It’s also increasing steadily, and if not controlled, it will soon become an epidemic due to an increase in the ageing population and the number of obesity cases worldwide. This aggravates the existing burden on health systems especially in developing nations. Screening and diagnosis are based on clinical guidelines that encompass both clinical and laboratory parameters. There is presently no cure for the disease. However, adherence to dietary recommendations as advised by health care workers has proven to be a game changer in its management. Hence, the current study sets to unravel adherence to dietary recommendations in the management of Type 2 diabetic patients at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital. Blood glucose level was used in order to determine if the patient has adhered to dietary recommendations. The study was conducted between November 2022 and January 2023; and it adopted a cross sectional analytical design using the Perceived Dietary Adherence Questionnaire to collect information on the socio-demographic characteristics, behavioural characteristics, dietary diversity, adherence to dietary recommendations and the level of dietary awareness. The study also utilised Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant interviews (KIIs) to collect complementary qualitative data. Systematic random sampling was applied in the 152 participants; who attended the diabetic clinic at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital. The information and data collected was entered into SPSS Version 21.0 and analysed. Qualitative data was transcribed coded and analysed to bring out the emerging themes. The study found that the social demographic factors, behavioural characteristics and awareness influenced adherence to dietary recommendation among the diabetics’ patients attending Nyahururu diabetic clinic at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital. Analysis of the respondent BMI was classified under 4 categories of underweight, normal, overweight and obese. Most of the respondents had a normal BMI (55.3%), overweight (28.4%), obese (7.4%) while (9.2%) were underweight. It was also observed 91.5% of the respondents had fasting blood glucose of more than 7.0mmol/l or higher glucose levels at the time of this study. This means that most of the respondents had high and uncontrolled blood sugar levels. The mean energy intake per day was 2291.4±125.6 kcal for men and 2193.7±164.3 kcal for female. The patients’ demographic characteristics influenced the level of adherence to dietary recommendation among the diabetics’ patients attending Nyahururu diabetic clinic at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital. There existed a statistically important association between gender, income, level of education, marital status and the level of awareness with the diabetic patients’ adherence to dietary recommendations at α=0.05. On the other side, age was not found to have insignificant influence on the participants’ adherence to dietary recommendations at α=0.05. There also existed a statistically significant association between Physical exercise, smoking as well as presence of other disease and diabetic patients’ adherence to dietary recommendations at α=0.05. Taking alcohol, family diabetics history, duration lived with diabetes and self- care did not significantly influence participants’ adherence to dietary recommendations at α=0.05. The intervention should be based on gender, education status, marital status and income; the average sugar level in mean was higher than the sugar level in women thus implies that men had low observance of recommended dietary than female. The study recommends emphasis on the observations of physical exercise, smoking and presence of other disease. The Ministry of Health and stakeholders should emphasize regular community sensitization of communities on the dietary recommendations for diabetic patients through continuous nutrition advocacy.