The aim of the study was to investigate dietary management
practices of dietitians for type 2 diabetic patients in public hospitals of
Limpopo province. The study design was descriptive with an analytical
component and used quantitative and qualitative methods. The
sample consisted of 30 dietitians and 24 patients from 30 hospitals. Selfreported
questionnaires were used for all participating hospitals, 12 of
which were visited by the researcher for observation and to interview
patients using a structured questionnaire. The researcher used checklist
to record observations on menus and diet sheets. Thematic analysis
was used to organise the responses from qualitative data following the
spiral method described by Creswell. Frequencies and percentages
were used to report quantitative data. The majority (71.4%) of dietitians
did not use scientific sources and calculations when prescribing diets.
Only 9.5% of dietitians used the glycaemic index concept, 52.4% used
foods to avoid/allowed lists, 66.7% used food-service aids to prepare
diabetic meals and 71.4% used the plate system for serving food. The
dietitians used a variety of procedures when counselling patients and
no standard nutrition educational materials existed in the province. In
Limpopo province, dietitians employed different dietary management
approaches in the dietary treatment of type 2 diabetic patients.