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Nutrition and exercise diabetes knowledge and practices of family members of patients in rural areas of Limpopo Province, South Africa

Family Members (FMs) offers basic assistance with meals and exercise, both of which are critical in diabetes control. Support from family has been linked to better outcomes. Family support, on the other hand, might lead to poor diabetes outcomes, especially when FMs lack information. Patients’ outcomes can be influenced by established family practices. As a result, the goal of this study is to determine diabetes FMs’ knowledge and practices in the areas of nutrition and exercise. On 200 FMs selected via convenient sampling from rural clinics in Senwabarwana, Limpopo Province, a quantitative approach and cross-sectional descriptive design were used. Close-ended questionnaires were used to collect data, which were then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software v27.0 and descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Only 31% of participants had great overall knowledge, according to the findings, and only 9% had good practice. Over half of the participants (53%) believe that overweight diabetes patients should skip meals in order to lose weight, and 3.5% and 19%, respectively, are familiar with exercise prescriptions and glucose measurements. Only 35,5% of people eat breakfast every day, whereas the overwhelming majority (87,5%) exercise. The findings of this study show that patient’s FMs need to enhance their diet and exercise diabetes care knowledge and practices. To reduce diabetes prevalence and its detrimental impact on patients’ diabetes treatment, a combined strategy of community-based awareness campaigns and a family-centered approach is proposed, as well as behavior change intervention.