A Study on Eating Habits, Life Styles and Nutrition Care of Diabetic Outpatients

The purpose of this survey was to investigate eating habits, life styles and nutritional care of diabetic outpatients and to provide basic data for developing individualized nutritional care and diabetic education programs. This survey was carried out by nutritional counseling with a questionnaire and checking medical record. Information about the general characteristics of the subjects, eating habits, health-related life styles and attitude and perception of subjects to diet therapy was gathered from 200 randomly-sampled diabetic outpatients at a University Hospital located in Inchon. All data were analyzed by Statistical Analysis System(SAS) software. The results are summarized as follows : Female subjects were 63.5% of total subjects and 65.5% of total subjects were 50 years or more. The average Body Mas Index(BMI) of male and female subjects were 23.06kg/㎡ and 25.02kg/㎡ respectively and 44% of all subjects wee obese. Among subjects, type II diabetic patients were 81.0% and 82.5% of subjects had suffered from diabetes for more than one year. Also 41% subjects had diabetic history in their family. More than half of the subjects had nutrition education concerning diabetes. Also 75.5% of them thought that nutrition education was effective. The most important guideline in diet therapy was to eat cooked rice with dietary fiber-rich grains. Therefore, it might be necessary to develop nutrition education program adjusted according to diabetic patient's needs and life styles, which may increase feasibility of self-care and implementation of management guidelines.