Evaluating Dietary Knowledge and Barriers to Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes in Rural Kentucky: Cross-Sectional Interview Survey

To determine the challenges that residents of rural Kentucky face regarding diabetes self-management and to identify methods that may promote diabetes management based on a population’s needs, semistructured questionnaires were used to interview 71 adults with diabetes (40 food pantry customers and 31 grocery store customers). Although 70.1% reported following healthy diets, only 43.3% could correctly choose between pairs of healthy/unhealthy food options. Only 21% of food pantry customers (assumed low-income participants) ate healthy. Lower income participants had a 7.79 times greater chance of having a family history of diabetes and had lower perception of having proper weight than grocery store customer participants (p = .036). Of all participants, 85.5% were motivated to manage their diabetes through diet, and 73.8% were interested in attending free healthy cooking classes. Participants who believed that diet is important in controlling diabetes revealed greater interest in attending cooking classes (p = .017). To promote healthy diets, offering free healthy cooking classes may be an effective way of communication with patients with diabetes from lower socioeconomic and educational status.