Sampling and Allocation
The sampling convenience method was employed. Eligible participants were classified by stratified blocked randomization and based on diet therapy (4 regimens). Thereafter, they were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the routine treatment regimen group. Randomization was done separately within each group. The size of the blocks was 4; in other words, 2 allocations to the intervention group and 2 allocations to the routine treatment group were considered.