Perception on food exchange system and its influential factors in the pre-diabetes population in the community

Objective To investigate the pre-diabetic people's perception towards food exchange system in the community, and to analyze the influential factors of the perception, in order to provide guidance for the wide use of the system. Methods By cluster sampling, 598 pre-diabetic participants who attended to 4 community health service centers in Chaoyang District in Beijing during the period of July to December 2016 were selected to participate in a questionnaire survey. Their perception on the food exchange system was analyzed and influential factors were analyzed by Logistic regression. Results Among the participants, 191 of them could accurately perceive the system, which accounted for 31.94%; 49 participants often used the system, accounting for 25.65%; 142 participants knew how to use the system but seldom used it and it counted for 74.35%; 407 participants had no knowledge about the system and that accounted for 68.06%. In terms of the awareness rate, females and abdominal obese group were greater than males and non-abdominal obese group with statistically significant differences (χ2=15.42, 27.72; P<0.01) . Logistic regression analysis indicated that abdominal obesity was the influential factor for the pre-diabetic participants in regards to their perception towards the food exchange system. Conclusions In the pre-diabetic participants, abdominal obesity is an influential factor affecting the low awareness rate towards the food exchange system. It is recommended that various forms of health education through various ways should be conducted for the population to improve their awareness and knowledge towards the system and hence to reduce the risk of developing into diabetes ultimately. Key words: Community health nursing; Prediabetic state; Food exchange system; Influential factors