The following is a summary of “Assessment of food labeling knowledge and associated reading barriers among patients with diabetes,” published in the February 2023 issue of Primary Care by Alshahrani, et al.
Managing a healthy diet is challenging for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). For a study, researchers sought to assess participants’ knowledge of food labels, examine the relationship between the type of DM and knowledge score of food labels, and identify barriers that hinder patients from reading food labels.
The observational study utilized a validated self-administered questionnaire. It was conducted on patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes from November 2019 to February 2020. The data were analyzed using SPSS.
The study, 310 patients were included, of which 51.6% were female, and 50.3% had type 1 diabetes mellitus. Whether they took pre-meals or insulin, patients with type 1 DM had higher mean declarative and applied knowledge scores than those with type 2 DM. Most people (39.9%) found comprehending nutrition labels’ information challenging, and some (37.2%) needed more education about it. Only 9.5% of the participants said reading food labels was easy.
Participants with both types of DM needed better knowledge about food labels and faced difficulties reading them. It is recommended that primary healthcare providers, specialized physicians, and DM educators provide educational sessions on food labels to assist patients in choosing their food properly.
Source: journals.lww.com/jfmpc/Fulltext/2023/02000/Assessment_of_food_labeling_knowledge_and.13.aspx
