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The poor lifestyles, rapid urbanization, lack of knowledge, unsatisfactory attitude and practices
among patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have resulted for the steady increase in the prevalence of DM
in Asian countries. Thus, this study aimed to explore the experiences of physicians and nutritionists on the
attitudes of the patients with DM and acceptable practices on self-management of DM. Descriptive qualitative
methodology was used to explore the experiences of voluntarily recruited physicians and nutritionists those
who had managed the Tamil patients with DM. In-depth interviews including audio recording were used for
data collection and verbatim transcripts were analyzed on the basis of content analysis. Three main themes
were emerged from the content analysis of interview transcripts. Ignorance of diet habits, changing of lifestyle
and healthy eating were the concerns of the health care professional. Ignorance, dietary habits and lifestyles
have impacted much among Tamil patients on Self- management of DM. Change in attitudes, modification
in lifestyles along with good adherence to acceptable practices would contribute to better self-management
of DM among Tamils.
