Abstract:
BACKGROUND Diabetes mellitus was used to be disease of the developed world but now
its prevalence is rapidly increasing globally. Currently developing countries including
Ethiopia are suffering from both the pandemic of communicable disease and
noncommunicable disease of which diabetes is the major one. The management of diabetes
involves dietary modification, physical exercise and drug therapy. The aim of this study is to
assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of diabetic patients about dietary control of
diabetes and their compliance to dietary advice.
METHODS: This study has a quantitative crossectional survey and qualitative indepth
interview and focus group discussion study designs. Data was collected by means of
structured questionnaire, in-depth interviews and FGD. RESULTS: 410 respondents,
229(55.9%) females and 181(44.1%) male with mean (+SD) age 49.6+ 13.8years. two
hundred eighty four (69.3%) were orthodox Christian followers. More than half (64.1%) of
the participants were married. One hundred ninety seven (48.0%) study participants had good
knowledge on dietary control of DM. About half of study subjects have good attitude towards
dietary control of diabetes and two hundred thirty seven (57.8%) study participants had good
practice on dietary control of DM. Compliance to dietary advice was a challenge for most
diabetics because of different reasons. CONCLUSIONS: this study indicates that low level
of knowledge, attitude and practice about dietary control of DM and poor compliance with
dietary advice. RECOMMENDATION: Improving the knowledge, attitude and practice of
diabetic patients and addressing challenges for their dietary compliance should be prioritized
in the management of Diabetes.
Key words: diabetes mellitus ,knowledge,attitude,practice,dietary control,glycemic control.
