Reasons for low adherence to diet-diaries issued to pediatric dental patients: a collective case study

Dietary habits are an important etiological factor in the development of dental caries. Several tools, such as 24-h dietary recall (retrospective) and diet-diaries (prospective), have been recommended for dietary assessment in dental practice. Diet-diaries are commonly advocated as a tool for oral health education; however, low adherence is found to be a recognized downside of their use in dental settings, as well as nutritional research more widely. However, the reasons for poor adherence to diet-diaries remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the reasons for poor adherence to diet-diaries issued to children in a dental hospital setting.

A qualitative collective case study design was employed to explore the use of diet-diaries as a health education tool. Twenty-eight data sources across 11 appointments included: observation of dentist-patient interactions, semi-structured interviews with child-parent dyads and dentists, in addition to documentary analysis of returned diet-diaries (this included 11 observations of dentist-patient interactions, 14 interviews with the child/parent dyads and dentists, and documentary analysis of three completed diet-diaries). Data from these multiple sources were integrated in a thematic analysis to identify themes and sub-themes.

Two overarching themes were identified: 1) the diet-diary is perceived as a test which carries a potential for embarrassment and blame, which in turn generates defensive behavior from parents; and 2) parents' values, priorities, and circumstances affect the level of commitment to completing a diet-diary.

Low adherence to diet-diary completion in clinical dentistry results from interacting factors related to the diet-diary itself, the patient, and the clinician. This study identifies a need for a more appropriate tool for dietary assessment that is patient-centered and compatible with modern lifestyles.