Adherence by non-nutrition professionals to the ministry of health's recommendations on nutrition for monitoring people with diabetes mellitus in primary health care

Introduction: Dietary care directly contributes to improving clinical and metabolic parameters and reducing risks in Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Objectives: To investigate the dietary guidelines given by non-nutritionist health professionals to people with DM in Primary Health Care (PHC), regarding updating, alignment with the guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Health (MS) and possible factors associated with adherence to such guidelines. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with PHC professionals from all Brazilian macro-regions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression (p<0.05). Results: 857 professionals were evaluated. Among the materials, the Food Guide for the Brazilian Population (GAPB) was the most used (33.8%), followed by the Primary Care Notebooks (CAB) (26.7%). Adherence to CAB recommendations was lower among men (RP=0.68, 95%CI 0.47-0.98), and higher among those aged > 50 years (RP= 1.78, 95%CI 1.17 - 2.70) while GAPB was more used by younger professionals (p<0.05). Discussion: Lack of knowledge or low adherence to the guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Health can systemically compromise the quality of the diet of people with DM, which can hurt the prognosis of the disease. Conclusion: There was low adherence to the guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Health to support dietary guidelines for people with DM in PHC.