Adherence to diet treatment as a correlate of diet related dysfunctional attitudes in participants with diabetes mellitus¹

Abstract

The main target of the presented study is to examine the adherence to diet treatment as a correlate of diet related dysfunctional attitudes in participants with diabetes mellitus. Also, the relation between glycemic control and eating disorder tendencies was examined. To measure related attitudes the diet related dysfunctional attitudes scale and to measure eating disorder tendencies Turkish standardization of SCOFF scale (SCOFF name was coined by the developers of the original scale) were used. In this quantitative and descriptive research with the correlational design, purposive sampling was used. The participants are 51 individuals (40 females; age range=24-59, = 39.35), who have most recent glycemic control (HbA1c) levels that handled after medical diet treatment. The group of participants with poor glycemic control (HbA1c>7) differed with higher diet related dysfunctional attitudes and higher eating disorder tendencies than the group who handled good control. Increasing scores regarding the diet related dysfunctional attitudes and the eating disorder tendencies of the participants related with decreasing glycemic control. Eating disorder tendencies and dysfunctional attitudes was determined as best predictors of glycemic control. Results implies the importance of considering cognitive interventions like individually tailored psycho-education and cognitive restructuring targeting dysfunctional attitudes to increase adherence to treatment suggestions besides the didactic instructions.