Impact of Dietetic Intervention on Metabolic Syndrome Patients Attending Diet Therapy Clinic: A prospective, Single-Arm Intervention Study

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is rising globally. Dietetic intervention, as part of a multidisciplinary team approach, is increasingly being recommended for the effective management of patients with MetS. This study was designed to assess the impact of a dietetic intervention on MetS characteristics of patients attending the Diet Therapy Clinic at Tema General Hospital, Ghana.

METHODOLOGY: A prospective pre-post single-arm intervention study was conducted among 168 participants who had been diagnosed with MetS and were referred to the Diet Therapy Clinic for dietetic intervention. Data on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), fasting blood glucose (FBG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), serum triglyceride (TG), and blood pressure (BP) were collected at baseline and after three months of receiving a dietetic intervention.

RESULTS: The MetS measures (BMI, WC, FBG, HDL and TG) of the patients improved at the end of the three months period (32.9 kg/m2 vs 31.7 kg/m2, p = 0.001; 101.2 cm vs 98.9 cm, p = 0.001; 11.0 mmol/L vs 7.7 mmol/L, p = 0.001; 1.1 mmol/L vs 1.2 mmol/L, p = 0.001; 2.0 mmol/L vs 1.9 mmol/L, p = 0.001 respectively). There were improvements in the mean systolic and diastolic BP values recorded after the three months (153 mmHg vs 131 mmHg, p = 0.001 and 98 mmHg vs 85 mmHg, p = 0.001 respectively).

CONCLUSION: Dietetic intervention was found to have improved the MetS characteristics of patients.