International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | September 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 9 Page 3600 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Rafisa A. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Sep;6(9):3600-3603 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Plate waste of inpatients with diabetes mellitus Anggun Rafisa* INTRODUCTION Patients need to fulfill nutritional intake during treatment in the hospital to help the healing process. Patients who eat less than their nutritional needs will experience a decrease in immune function. Patients will become lethargic, the healing period becomes longer, the wound becomes difficult to heal and vulnerable to infection. 1,2 The weak patient's condition as a result of a failure in reaching their nutritional requirements in the hospital will be aggravated if the patient suffers from a disease that requires nutritional therapy such as diabetes mellitus. 3 The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in 2012 stated that more than 371 million people worldwide had diabetes mellitus and 4.8 million people died from this disease. 4 The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Indonesia is only 1.1% in 2007 and increased very high to 6.6% in the 2013. 4,5 The nutrition services of inpatient with diabetes mellitus is very important because dietary management is the key to controlling blood glucose level. 6 People with diabetes mellitus need nutritional therapy to get better metabolic control and prevent complications. 7 Diabetes mellitus patients are recommended to reduce energy intake, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. 8 Foodservice quality is one of the indicators of nutrition service quality in the hospital. The quality of food service ABSTRACT Background: The nutrition services of inpatient with diabetes mellitus is very important because dietary management is the key to controlling blood glucose level. Ensuring the patient to consume all the food served by the hospital or reduce the plate waste may help patients to meet their nutritional needs. This study aimed to investigate plate waste of inpatient with diabetes mellitus in hospitals and its contributing factors so the quality of food service in the hospital could be enhanced. Methods: The sample of the study was 22 inpatient with diabetes mellitus at Al Islam Hospital in Bandung, Indonesia from November 2014 to February 2015. The patient's plate waste at breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 days was weighed using an electronic scale. Patients were also interviewed to find out the reasons for wasting food. Results: The overall mean of plate waste in this study was 13.26% of food served. Porridge was the type of food that had the highest mean percentage of plate waste (17.38%). Vegetables were the second-highest wasted food (17.05%). Loss of appetite, lack of knowledge, cold food temperature and large main plate portion were the reasons for food wastage. Conclusions: The type of food that wasted the most by inpatient with diabetes mellitus was porridge and vegetables. Improving the quality of food service and delivery as well as increasing the role of health workers to educate and encourage patients to eat while under treatment in hospitals are interventions that can be done to reduce the amount of inpatient plate waste. Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Inpatient, Plate waste Department of Oral Biology, University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia Received: 02 July 2020 Revised: 04 August 2020 Accepted: 10 August 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Anggun Rafisa, E-mail: anggun.rafisa@unpad.ac.id Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203929