Family Support as Predictor of Adhernce to Diet Regimen among People with Type II Diabetes in Lagos State

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out if support of family members will help people with diabetes (in Lagos Metropolis) to adhere to diet regimen in managing diabetes. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses were tested on presence of family, diabetes knowledge of family and family involvement. A total of 120 people with diabetes were surveyed using a self-developed structured and validated questionnaire from the three tiers of health facilities in Lagos metropolis. The reliability of the instrument was determined as 0.81 using a Test Re-test method of reliability. The findings of this study are that living with a family member, family members' knowledge and family involvement will affect people with diabetes adherence to diet regimen. The study recommended that scaling up diabetes programmes, encouraging families of people with diabetes to attend clinics and establishing a functional diabetes group should be advocated.