Faulty food habits is coming up as a major reason for the growing number of diabetes patients in Ahmedabad.
City-based endocrinologists and diabetologists are finding most patients confessing that they have been craving for food even when they are full, or are busy counting calories and afraid of eating as it may shoot up their sugar levels.
A recent study highlighted that 35 per cent of the 250 diabetes 2 patients they surveyed had one type of eating disorder or other. The study ‘Eating Disorders: Assessing Its Prevalence and Pattern Among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes’ by Arti Muley, Aditi Deshmane, Anu Mahajan, and Jeel Shah from Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences was published online in Cureus.
The Ahmedabad-based study used Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food (SCOFF) questionnaire along with Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDEQ) to assess the prevalence of restraint, eating concern, shape concern and weight concern.
‘The results revealed that 90 (35%) of the total participants were at a high risk of eating disorders. Among these, 21% were males and 14% were females. Education was a significant predictor, whereas negative correlation was found in context of age and exercise,’ mentioned the study results. It also added that elders were at a relatively lesser risk. The patients’ Body Mass Index (BMI), occupation and duration of diabetes were not found to be significant factors.
City-based experts said that eating disorders were a concern as proper food management was a crucial component of glycemia control.
Doctors say weight gain and other conditions are often associated with diabetes which has both physiological and psychological basis. The concern of weight gain or excessive focus on sugar intake is often reported in younger patients.
Experts also suggested use of psychologists along with dieticians and nutritionists for diabetic patients. They say it is important to understand the psyche of the young diabetes 2 patients and guide them in body image and effects of the condition and medication.
Eating behaviour should be understood and the patients should be given right information about diet, others stressed.
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