Effectiveness of A Multifactorial Intervention in Increasing Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet among Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2: A Controlled and Randomized Study (EMID Study)

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 162
• Main Authors: Alonso-Domínguez, Rosario, García-Ortiz, Luis, Patino-Alonso, Maria C., Sánchez-Aguadero, Natalia, Gómez-Marcos, Manuel A., Recio-Rodríguez, José I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 14.01.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Aged; Biomedical research; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Blood Pressure; Cholesterol - blood; Clinical trials; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - diet therapy; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - drug therapy; Diet; Diet, Healthy; Diet, Mediterranean; Disease prevention; Exercise; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Food Quality; glycemic control; Health Behavior; Health promotion; Health services; healthy eating habits; Humans; Hyperglycemia; Insulin; Intervention; Male; Mediterranean diet; Metabolic disorders; Middle Aged; mobile telephones; noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus; nutritional adequacy; Patient Compliance; patients; physical activity; Population; Primary care; Quality; Research centers; Smartphone; Smartphones; Socioeconomic Factors; Systematic review; Waist Circumference; Spain; health education; information and communication technologies; type 2 diabetes; Mediterranean diet
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu11010162

The Mediterranean diet (MD) is recognized as one of the healthiest dietary patterns and has benefits such as improving glycaemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Our aim is to assess the effectiveness of a multifactorial intervention to improve adherence to the MD, diet quality and biomedical parameters. The EMID study is a randomized and controlled clinical trial with two parallel groups and a 12-month follow-up period. The study included 204 subjects between 25–70 years with T2DM. The participants were randomized into intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). Both groups received brief advice about healthy eating and physical activity. The IG participants additionally took part in a food workshop, five walks and received a smartphone application for three months. The population studied had a mean age of 60.6 years. At the 3-month follow-up visit, there were improvements in adherence to the MD and diet quality of 2.2 and 2.5 points, compared to the baseline visit, respectively, in favour of the IG. This tendency of the improvement was maintained, in favour of the IG, at the 12-month follow-up visit. In conclusion, the multifactorial intervention performed could improve adherence to the MD and diet quality among patients with T2DM.