ASSOCIATION BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICE ABOUT DIETARY FIBRE INTAKE AND TYPE 2 DIABETES AMONG RURAL PEOPLE IN TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA

Awareness of the dietary fibre intake (DF) and its importance in prevention and management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among rural people is seldom reported in Malaysia. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of DF intake and their association with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among rural people in Terengganu, Malaysia. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out among the households in Kampung Jati, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia from 29th December 2019 until 20th February 2020. The village has 524 houses, the data was collected from all available and eligible subjects in each household by completed socio-demographic, validated KAP on DF intake questionnaire, as well as a 24-hour dietary recall using a self-administered questionnaire. In our study of 396 respondents, 208 (52.5%) were men. The mean age of participants was 37.85 (15.13). Most of the subjects were Malay 384 (97.0%), employed 207 (52.3%) and 274 (69.2%) attained high level of education (from tertiary school level). However, only 170 (42.9%) had a high family income which was of >RM 3860 per month. Out of 396 respondents, 157 (39.6%) of them had family history of diabetes mellitus. Respondents had moderate knowledge (39.1%), positive attitude (88.1%) and good practice (59.3%) scores towards DF intake. Among the respondents, only 39.1% of total respondents knew the nationally recommended amount of daily fibre intake which is of 20-30 grams per day. With multivariable analysis using multiple logistic regression, the analysis results revealed that age (adjusted OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.15; p <0.001), having family history of T2DM (adjusted OR: 6.81, 95% CI: 2.75, 16.84; p <0.001) and having total attitude scores (adjusted OR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.76, 0.93; p <0.001) were found to be adjusted significant associated factors of T2DM among the respondents after controlling confounders. Public health authorities should raise awareness on health benefit of consuming dietary fibre to promote an increase in consumption which can help in prevention and management of chronic diseases among rural population of Malaysia.