Acta Scientific Nutritional Health (ASNH)(ISSN: 2582-1423)

Research Article Volume 7 Issue 6

Ramadan Fasting and Religious Beliefs and Practices amongst the Muslim Diabetic Patients during COVID-19 Pandemic

Ülkü Demirci1* and Ayşegül Kaptanoğlu2

1Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, İstanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey
2Department of Health Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, İstanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey

*Corresponding Author: Ülkü Demirci, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, İstanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey

Received: April 24, 2023; Published: May 16, 2023

Abstract

Background and aim: Despite the increased risk of diabetes and the associated complications, many Muslim patients suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prefer to observe Ramadan fasting. For the better understanding of the patients’ perspective regarding fasting and help physicians offer better patient-centric care, we evaluated the religious and Ramadan fasting beliefs and practices of diabetic Muslims through this study.

Methods: A set of 150 Muslim subjects with T2DM, voluntarily participated in this cross-sectional study. The subjects were given an ad-hoc questionnaire comprising of total 40 items, divided into two subscales to investigate: (a) Ramadan fasting beliefs and practices; (b) Religious beliefs and practices.

Results: The patients’ mean age was 52.08 ± 11.11 years. They fasted for 27.85 ± 2.31 days. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) had excellent reliability at 0.91. The multivariate analyses indicated that subsequently adjusting for confounders, employment status [beta standardized coefficient (β) = 0.060; T = 0.843; P = 0.000], age (β standardized coefficient = -0.142; T = -1.658; P = 0.001), educational level (β standardized coefficient = 0.045; T = 0.637; P = 0.002), fasting and religious beliefs and practices (β standardized coefficient = -0.199; T = -2.917; P = 0.004), and diabetes complications and comorbidities (β standardized coefficient = 0.194; T = -2.775; P = 0.006) significantly governed the total count of fasting days.

Conclusions: Both Ramadan and religious beliefs played a significantly influential role in the decision-making process of diabetics who decided to fast during Ramadan. However, more studies need to be done in this area.

Keywords:Humans; Islam; Diabetes Complications; Fasting; Surveys; Questionnaires

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Citation

Citation: Ülkü Demirci and Ayşegül Kaptanoğlu. “Ramadan Fasting and Religious Beliefs and Practices amongst the Muslim Diabetic Patients during COVID-19 Pandemic". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 7.6 (2023): 44-51.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Ülkü Demirci and Ayşegül Kaptanoğlu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.




Metrics

Acceptance rate30%
Acceptance to publication20-30 days
Impact Factor1.316

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