Dietary compliance among diabetes patients attending clinic at new Nyanza Provincial General Hospital, Kenya

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a major public health issue. It is one of the most prevalent medical conditions affecting people and is responsible for high mortality and large amount of potential years of life lost. Diet is the cornerstone of diabetes management, without which its control is impossible. However, compliance to dietary therapy has been reported to be the greatest area of poor compliance in persons with diabetes. Dietary non-compliance ranges from 32-82% among diabetics.Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the level of dietary compliance among the diabetic patients attending the New Nyanza General Hospital's diabetic clinic and in-patient diabetics in the medical ward.Methods: The study utilized the convenience sampling technique and the study design was cross sectional. Self administered questionnaires were used to collect data.Results: About a third (31.5%) indicated that they always followed the recommended diet while 57.5% sometimes followed it, 6.8% rarely followed whereas 4.1% do not follow it at all. Findings of this study revealed that majority of the patients have a number of barriers to dietary compliance and therefore an intervention to improve adherence should be put in place to address this issue.Keywords: Diet modification, nutrition assessment, knowledge, attitud