Adherence Levels to Dietary Recommendations and Barriers among Type-2 Diabetic Patients on Follow-up at Mohammed Akila General Hospital: Cross Sectional Study Design

Background: Type-2 DM attributes for the large majority of people living with diabetes globally and is mainly the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity.It is now increasingly occurring in children and young people in contrary to the past, claimed is restricted to adults.WHO has announced on its recent global diabetes report that an estimated 422 million adults are living with diabetes mellitus (DM) worldwide. Objectives:The main purpose of this study was an assessing the level of dietary adherence and its barriers among type-2 diabetic patients attending the medicine outpatient department in Mohammed Akila General Hospitals (MAGH), Afar regional state, Ethiopia.Methods: A prospective hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 2 July to September 2, 2021, at Mohammed Akila General Hospitals (MAGH).The Perceived Dietary Adherence Questionnaire (PDAQ) was used for dietary adherence measurement.Multivariate logistic regression was done to identify the barriers influencing dietary adherence.Results: In the study, Majority (62.5%) of the study participants had poor adherence based on PDAQ while only 37.5% of the participants had good adherence towards dietary recommendations.Among nine perceived dietary adherence questions, the highest mean score was obtained for the question on how many of the last SEVEN DAYS did you eat foods high in fibre such as oatmeal, high fibre cereals, and whole-grain breads?Conclusion: level of adherence to dietary recommendation was generally low as evidenced by only 37.5% of study participant reported good adherence to dietary recommendation.Lack of knowledge, diet education, and inability to afford the recommended diet, low monthly income, lack of previous exposure to dietary education and difficulty of adhering to the recommended diet during social or work events were the most significant barriers responsible for non-adherence.