Table 2.

Medical and diabetes-related characteristics of patients with T2D included in the study (n = 351).

	Mean (n)	Standard deviation (%)
Duration of diabetes (years)	9.75	8.5
Missing (n = 30)
Family history of diabetes
No	54	15.4
Yes	269	84.6
Presence of diabetes complications ∗
No	213	60.7
Yes	138	39.3
Presence of other chronic diseases ∗∗
No	180	51.3
Yes	171	48.7
Lipid lowering medications
No	257	73.2
Yes	94	26.8
HbA1c testing during the last 3 months
Did not test	121	34.5
Tested but did not know the level	65	18.5
Tested and knew the level	165	47.0
Daily blood glucose testing by fingerprick
No	158	45.0
Once	162	46.2
1 to 4 times	23	6.6
More than 4 times	8	2.3
Checking nutritional composition of foods
No	253	72.1
Yes	98	27.9
Responsible for diabetes care
Patient himself	81	23.1
Family member	137	39.0
Physician	133	37.9
Help from family/friends in medication administration
No	132	37.6
Yes	219	62.4
Help from family/friends in dietary intake
No	154	43.9
Yes	197	56.1
Source of dietary knowledge
Physician	126	35.9
Dietitian	35	10.0
Diabetes organizations	58	16.5
Social media	188	53.6

Summary statistics are expressed as mean and standard deviation for continuous variables and as frequency and percentage for categorical variables. ^∗Among diabetes complications reported, cardiovascular disease accounted for 27.9% (n = 98), kidney problems for 6.3% (n = 22), peripheral problems for 6.6% (n = 23), dental problems for 4.0% (n = 14), and nerve damage and pain for 1.7% (n = 6). Among chronic diseases reported, liver disease accounted for 1.1% (n = 4), cancer for 6.3% (n = 22), cardiovascular diseases for 21.9% (n = 77), dyslipidemia for 16.8% (n = 59), renal disease for 8.0% (n = 28), and hypertension for 39.6% (n = 139).