Dietitians’ Perspectives on Interventions to Enhance Adherence to Dietary Advice for Chronic Diseases in Adults

Abstract

Purpose: To assess dietitians’ perspectives on the importance and applicability of interventions to enhance adherence to dietary advice for preventing and managing chronic diseases in adults in the Canadian context. Methods: Based on a Cochrane systematic review, we identified 8 promising interventions for enhancing adherence to dietary advice: behavioural contracts, exchange lists, feedback based on self-monitoring, individualized menu suggestions, multiple interventions, portion size awareness, telephone follow-up, and videos. Thirty-two dietitians then completed a 3-round Delphi study by responding to an electronic questionnaire asking them to rate the importance and applicability in their practice of the 8 interventions on a 7-point Likert scale. Results: Using a ≥75% level of agreement, 4 interventions showed strong consensus: multiple interventions, feedback based on self-monitoring, portion size awareness, and videos. Among these, the most significant were (means ± SD for importance and applicability, respectively) feedback based on self-monitoring (6.97 ± 0.18 and 6.72 ± 0.46), portion size awareness (6.69 ± 0.54 and 6.75 ± 0.51), and multiple interventions (6.94 ± 0.25 and 6.81 ± 0.40). Conclusions: These findings can guide the development of educational training sessions for dietitians to help them provide practice-relevant interventions that will increase the likelihood that patients adhere to their advice regarding prevention and management of chronic diseases.