Avaliação do conhecimento sobre nutrição de diabéticos atendidos em um centro de referência do sul do Brasil

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge about nutrition of diabetic people attended at a Reference Center in the South of Brazil. Method: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out with patients aged 18 years and over, who were first seen at the Nutrition Outpatient Clinic. Data were collected regarding the demographic, economic and nutritional profile through a previously elaborated questionnaire. The data were analyzed using STATA 12.0 software and the results were presented by means with their respective standard deviations. t Student test or analysis of variance (significance level 5%) was used for mean differences. Results: 30 patients participated in this study, aged 58.90±9.06 years, mostly women, with partner and belonging to social classes B/C. The majority of the sample was newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics and 16.67% of the patients were participating or had already participated in some diabetes counseling group. The average number of correct answers to questions about diet was 9.23 ± 1.88. There was no association between nutritional knowledge and nutritional status. However, there was a minority presence of patients in diabetes counseling groups, but the mean number of correct answers was greater than 80%, with a statistically significant difference (p <0.005). Conclusion: The nutritional knowledge evaluation was satisfactory in relation to the number of correct answers to the questionnaire, especially among those patients who had participated in some diabetes counseling group, evidencing the importance of nutritional intervention in the general care of these patients.