OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the scope of a project of nutritional intervention, conducted by the Federal University of Viçosa (MG), on fasting glucose, anthropometric measurements and body composition of diabetic patients. METHODS: In this cohort study, diabetic patients recruited from the " Elderly Diabetics Nutritional Care" project, conducted at the Federal University of Viçosa, participated in meetings twice a month, where healthy diets were discussed and individual nutritional intervention was given. The data were collected by the application of a clinical-nutritional questionnaire to 42 patients containing personal information and information regarding clinical history, dietary intake, anthropometric measurements, body composition and biochemical data. Body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, percentage of body fat and fasting glucose of the participants were analyzed at baseline and after six months of nutritional intervention. The statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software, version 12.5. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. The analyses before and after the intervention were done using the Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: At the end of the study, there was a significant reduction in the median body mass index (p=0.032 and 0.022), waist circumference (p=0.036 and 0.03), and percentage of body fat (p=0.045 and 0.039) of males and females, respectively. Furthermore, there was also a significant reduction in fasting glucose (p=0.035). However, the median value of this last parameter was still above the recommended value. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the nutritional therapy helped improve the anthropometric and biochemical data of the participants, although they must continue with this treatment for more time for these changes to become more evident.
Athropometry; Nutritional assessment; Diabetes mellitus; Diet; Glycemia
