Dietary habits of hypertensive and diabetic patients: Rethinking patient care through primary care

Abstract

Objective This study aims to identify inappropriate dietary habits shown by hypertensive and diabetic patients registered in the Family Health Strategies Program, in the city of Teixeiras (MG), Brazil, aiming towards the development of health intervention strategies. Methods In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview 10.3% of the hypertensive and 15.0% of the diabetic patients, which were probabilistically and randomly selected. Results Most (74.4%) of these patients were older women (mean age of 63.59, SD=13.12 years) with low income (an average of 0.5 minimum wage). These hypertensive and diabetic patients had a small number of daily meals (mean=3.0/4.0) and consumed high amounts of sugar (M=165.63g, SD=118.93 and M=105.13g, SD=48.7), salt (M=22.63g, SD=22.26 and M=12.96g, SD=16.73), oil (M=60g, SD=43.23), and lard (18.8% and 13.3%) daily. However, 97.3% and 96.7% respectively did not add salt to the ready-to-eat preparations, 72.5% and 86% respectively used only vegetable oil to prepare their meals, and 15.4% and 90% respectively of the interviewed patients used artificial sweetener. Conclusion Heath care strategies need to be developed to stimulate changes in these habits to prevent and control the complications related to these morbidities.