The Effect of Nutrition Support of Commercial Formula and FortemDia_Tri on Total Cholesterol Level and Blood Pressure in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

— Most people with diabetes mellitus (DM) type 2 have increased lipid prevalence. An increase in cholesterol levels can reach 28% to 34%. High cholesterol levels accompanied by an increase in blood pressure in people with type-2 DM can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Proper nutritional support in the patient with type-2 DM is needed in controlling blood sugar along with controlling cholesterol levels and blood pressure. FortemDia_Tri is the development of a liquid dietary modification as nutritional support based on tempeh flour and mung beans as the main source of isoflavones and other ingredients such as skim milk flour, brown rice flour, canola oil, and maltodextrin, which are recommended for type-2 DM patients. Most commercial formulas do not contain isoflavones. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of nutritional support for commercial formulas and FortemDia_Tri on reducing cholesterol levels and blood pressure in patients with type-2 DM. The sample of this study includes 33 patients with type-2 DM with the sample who neither takes insulin therapy nor consumes cholesterol-lowering drugs. Some samples were divided into 3 groups: control group (P1) given DM dietary education (n=11), P2 group given commercial formula (n = 11), and P3 group given the FortemDia_Tri (n=11). The dosage of commercial formula and FortemDia_Tri was 500 ml and 400 ml/day/person given 2 times/day, respectively. The intervention was done in 5 days. This study is analytical research with a randomized experimental study approach. The research design used is the pretest-posttest control-group design. The data of this research were analyzed with a one-way ANOVA test with the posthoc LSD test. After 5 days of treatment, there was a change in the level of total cholesterol of P2 group (-8.91 ± 23.17 mg/dl) with p = 0.231, and P3 group (-40.09 ± 25.04 mg/dl) with p = 0.000). Meanwhile, there was no change in the control group, and there was a significant difference between those groups (p = 0.001). P3 group has reduced more blood pressure than P1 and P2 groups, but the decrease was not different between the groups (p > 0.05). The FortemDia_Tri nutritional support can help reduce cholesterol levels and blood pressure in patients with type-2 DM. Further studies with longer duration and more sample sizes areneeded.