Effects of Nutrition Education on Knowledge of Body Building Food Needs of Diabetic Patients in General Hospital in Anambra State Nigeria

Abstract

Most of the major terminal illnesses suffered by mankind today is nutrition related and that is why human nutrition is a public health concern, because diabetes mellitus is also a health problem linked nutrition; this study determined the effect of nutrition education on the knowledge of body building food needs of diabetic patients in general hospitals in Anambra State. The study had three purpose, research questions and two hypotheses. The two hypotheses were test at 0.05 level of significance. Health belief model guided the study. The design used for the study was quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non control group design, the area of the study was Anambra State using Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital. The population of the study was 67 diabetic patients; there was no sampling as the population could be managed by the researcher. The instrument for data collection was a knowledge test on the effect of nutrition education (KTENE); the validation of the instrument was determined by the help of three experts. The reliability of the instrument was established by the use Kudder Richard son (K-R20) method which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.60. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS i.e. statistical package for the social sciences version 25. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyse the research questions while ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significant. The results of the study showed that after the nutrition education programme, the diabetic patient’s knowledge of nutritional health needs increased as showed in their mean gain knowledge scores for body building foods. For gender, the male had a mean gain knowledge in protein foods also diabetic patients with first degree had more knowledge i.e. mean gain knowledge score more that diabetic patients with less than first degree and postgraduate degrees. Based on the findings it was recommended among others; that there is need for continuous health education on nutrition to help in the frequent use of medications also, government should set policies that reduces.