OJO SNOWHITE ENIBOKUN

This study investigated nutritional knowledge and dietary habits among diabetic patients in a tertiary health institution, Edo State. The study aims to ascertain level of nutritional knowledge of diabetes among patients with diabetes, dietary habits of pa tients with diabetes and the factors influencing food consumption pattern of patients with diabetes attending a tertiary institution, Benin City. Three research questions were raised and answered in the study and stated hypothesis was tested at <0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a non-experimental descriptive survey design. The study population was 440 Diabetic patients attending treatment at University of Benin teaching hospital, from which a sample size of 230 respondents were selected for the study using convenient sampling method. A well-structured questionnaire instrument was drafted and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by the research supervisor and two other experts in the field. To ensure the reliability of the instrument, a pilot study was conducted and a reliability value greater than (>0.5) was obtained. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency count, percentages, means, Anova and graphical representation of results.The result shows that majority of the respondents have fair nutritional knowledge of diabetes. Also, majority of the respondents have poor dietary habits. Furthermore, taste preferences, emotional state, food prices, availability of healthy option are factors influencing food consumption pattern. Based on the findings, it was concluded and recommended that there should be health education by nurses to enlighten people on the importance of good dietary changes to health and mass media outlets such as television, radio, road jingles and posters etc. should be used to disseminate useful information on the importance of nutritional knowledge of diabetes