Qualitative research on nutritional literacy in patients with type 2 diabetes—Patient and health worker perspectives

Abstract

Background Medical nutritional therapy is the basis of the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. To deeply explore the nutritional literacy status and influencing factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, to understand the nutritional needs of patients, and to provide a basis for strengthening the nutritional literacy level of diabetes mellitus patients in China, improving self-management, and improving the quality of life. Methods A phenomenological research method was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with 13 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 10 healthcare professionals, and the Colaizzi 7-step method was used to analyze the data and refine the themes. Results Four themes and 12 sub-themes were summarized: lack of beliefs about nutrition management (ambiguity about the role of nutrition management, lack of willingness to gain in-depth knowledge about nutrition, lack of awareness of dietary nutritional risks, and poor dietary nutritional adherence); insufficient knowledge and skills in nutrition management (misconceptions about nutritional knowledge, lack of skills in nutritional combinations and food exchanges, and insufficient ability to cope with difficulties); and insufficient ability to interact with nutritional information (active less access to nutritional knowledge, limited utilization of perceived surrounding resources, transformation and utilization of nutritional information); and insufficient ability to critique nutritional information (difficulty in identifying nutritional information, selective acceptance of nutritional information). Conclusion The overall nutritional literacy of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is insufficient, the perception of nutritional management is weak, nutritional knowledge and skills are more lacking, the interactive and critical ability of nutritional information needs to be improved, and the patients are unable to carry out effective disease management; therefore, it is necessary for healthcare professionals to improve the nutritional literacy of the patients for the self-management and healthy outcomes by targeting the weak points.