Background  
Glycaemic control is the central focus of diabetes management. Lifestyle management plays a vital role in achieving the proper glycaemic control. Healthy diet is an integral part of lifestyle management of diabetics. Provision of nutrition education and self-management care for type 2 diabetics is limited in Sri Lanka.

Aim  
Therefore, current study was conducted with the objective of developing a dietary education booklet to facilitate the self-management education and provide the necessary skills for proper dietary management for individuals with type 2 diabetes.   


Method  
This qualitative study was conducted in two phases as content development phase and validation phase. Twenty two ( n =22) healthcare professionals including Diabetologists, Dietitians, Diabetes Education Nurses and Researchers involved in diabetes related research were recruited to identify the contents for proposed booklet. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to obtain the health care professionals’ opinions, concerns and suggestions for booklet contents. A booklet was composed in native language with appropriate illustrations. Illustrations and layout was developed by a professional designer using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator software. In addition, readability was checked by an expert of native language for language use, spelling, grammar, terminology and sentence patterns.

Results  
Booklet was designed with six chapters including; “Background information for dietary management”; Dietary guidelines and nutrition therapy for diabetes”; “Specific diet types and food products for individuals with diabetes”; “Preparation for specific days and occasions”; “Guidelines and tips to modify diet” and “Interactive worksheets for individuals with diabetes”. Draft booklet was validated with a panel of twenty two ( n =22) healthcare professionals and twenty two ( n =22) individual with diabetes. Healthcare professionals were involved in the content validity whereas face validity was performed with the participation of individuals with diabetes. Derived content validity index (CVI) and scale level content validity index (S-CVI) were for the developed booklet were 0.8 and 0.8 respectively. All the comments and suggestions received at the validation process were considered and incorporated in the amendments.  


Discussion  
Validation phase indicated that the developed booklet was effective in delivering the dietary information for self-management of diabetic condition. Further, it is suggested to conduct clinical studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed booklet.  




Development of a dietary education booklet for individual with type 2 diabetes