Food habits, lifestyle, knowledge, attitude and practices of male diabetic subjects as influenced by nutrition counselling

Ninety male diabetic subjects aged 35–50 years, free from the serious complications were selected and equally divided into three groups’ viz. Nutrition counselling Group (NCG), Chromium Supplementation Group (CSG) and Only Medication Group (OMG). All the groups were treated as their own control groups for a period of one month and further followed for three months. NCG was imparted nutrition counselling in individual and group contact along with the prescribed medicines. CSG was given chromium in the form of chromium picolinate (CrPic) capsules (200 mcg/day) for the period of three months along with prescribed medicines. OMG was only on the medication. In NCG majority of the subjects during pre–test obtained scores in the range of 31–40 (56.67%), whereas after three months of nutrition counselling a higher percentage of (63.34%) of the subjects obtained scores in the range of 71–80 and 33.33% subjects scored more than 81 scores. There was a significant (p≤ 0.01) improvement observed in the scores of NCG in their knowledge (187.63%; 6.63 to 19.07), attitudes (78.98%; 26.50 to 47.43) and practices (821.9%; 1.37 to 12.63) before (pre-test) and after (post-test) after three months of nutrition counselling. The total scores in the NCG improved 130.50% from 34.33 to 79.13. The difference in the knowledge, attitude and practices(KAP) scores among NCG and CSG, NCG and OMG was significant before (p≤0.05) and after (p≤0.01) three months, except for the practices which were statistically at par among three groups before the nutrition counselling. The improved knowledge scores clearly indicate the benefits of nutrition counselling. Thus, nutrition counselling can be an effective measure for bringing favorable and significant changes in the food intake, nutritional profile and knowledge of male diabetic subjects.