Compliance with prescribed diet and exercise among diabetic clients at Barangay Mabilo, Kalibo, Aklan

Abstract

This research study was conducted to identify the factors associated with compliance to prescribed diet and exercise among diagnosed diabetic clients at Barangay Mabilo, Kalibo, Aklan. Specifically, this study aimed to describe their personal characteristics, their level of knowledge and attitude towards compliance to prescribed diet and exercise. More importantly, this study was intended to determine the degree of variance between personal characteristics of respondents and their level of knowledge about diabetes mellitus, diet and exercise, their personal characteristics and their attitude towards it and their demographic data and their compliance with diet and exercise. It sought whether there is significant relationship between the level of knowledge of clients, their attitude and their compliance. This is a descriptive-correlation study which employed the one-shot survey design. The survey includes 32 diagnosed diabetic respondents who were interviewed using a structured interview guide that was prepared in English and then translated into the Aklanon dialect. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS+PC version 14.0 wherein Z-test for difference in means was used as well as Z-test for difference in proportion using Microsoft Excel 2007. In determining the significance ofrelationship between variables, gamma co-efficient statistics was employed.

Major Findings Based on the research problem and the objectives of this study, the major findings were the following:

Majority of diabetic respondents at Barangay Mabilo, Kalibo, Aklan were married with ages 60 years and above. Most of them were women who accomplished elementary education and with monthly family earnings of Php 11, 500 and below. A significant number of respondents have average knowledge about general information about diabetes mellitus and exercise. Even though most of them have low knowledge when it comes to diet, some of them still showed compliance with their prescribed diet. Furthermore, more than half of them were compliant with exercise. In terms of attitude, more than half of the respondents reacted favorably with diet, which explains the compliant behavior of some. On the other hand, majority of them do not have favorable attitude towards exercise nevertheless more than half of them were doing walking exercises. More than half of the respondents were compliant with prescribed diet and exercise for diabetics. However, a considerable number of them do not comply. Those who complied with the prescribed diet and exercise followed it religiously. One of the reasons of those who did not comply with their diet was that they could not resist food. At the same time as with exercise, they just have no time for it. Another notable finding of this study was that the personal characteristics of respondents, in terms of age, sex, civil status, family income and educational attainment has no significant relationship with their level of knowledge and with their attitude towards diet and exercise. Moreover, the personal characteristics of respondents, their level of knowledge and their attitude do not show any significant relationship with their compliance to prescribed diet and exercise. Furthermore, their knowledge with diabetes mellitus, diet and exercise do not show any significant relationship with their attitude towards their prescribed diet and exercise.