Juliana Shamsudin, Sakinah Harith, Shariza Abdul Razak and Nor Azmi Zainal
Background: Diet Management Tool (DMT) is a nutrition assessment system developed by the researchers from Dietetic Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The system has been applied in dietary counselling for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), replacing the untailored traditional counselling approach.
Aim: This study examined the effectiveness of dietary counselling using DMT among type 2 diabetes patients.
Method and material: A parallel-design, controlled trial was performed on 50 participants aged between 30-55 years old with type 2 diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: the traditional dietary counselling (control group, n=22) and the DMT (intervention group, n=28). The intervention group received dietary counselling based on DMT while the control group received routine or traditional dietary counselling. The DMT consists of nutrition care modules that tailored to the patients’ needs. Anthropometric (body mass index, BMI), biochemical (fasting blood sugar, estimated average glucose and HbA1c) and food pattern outcomes were measured at baseline, three month, six month and nine month. Data was collected between June 2009 and March 2010.
Results: During the baseline study, 46.4% of participants from intervention group and 45.5% of participants from control group were classified as overweight based on World Health Organization (WHO) classification. Meanwhile, fasting blood sugar (FBS), estimated average glucose (eAG) and HbA1c level of both groups were higher than the normal range. Intake of energy was higher as compared to individual’s energy requirements. Repeated measure of ANCOVA showed that dietary counselling by the dietitian using DMT significantly improved glycaemic control in terms of improving HbA1c and eAG compared to control group (p<0.05). However, there were no significant changes in other parameters.
Conclusions: In conclusion, tailored intervention approach using DMT gave positive results in improvement of glycaemic control among diabetic patients.
