Individualized diet conversation in primary care: A pilot intervention.

Area of Science:

• Primary Care Medicine
• Behavioral Science
• Public Health Nutrition

Background:

• Primary care providers often neglect nutrition discussions due to time constraints and perceived complexity.
• Lack of routine diet counseling impacts patient health outcomes.
• A need exists for efficient, integrated nutrition assessment tools in primary care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a brief protocol for assessing and discussing patient diet in primary care.
• To increase the frequency of nutrition conversations during routine visits.
• To improve patient health outcomes through enhanced dietary counseling.

Main Methods:

• Developed a protocol for nutrition and stage of change assessment, plus a patient-led conversation guide.
• Protocol modeled on Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) principles.
• Implemented and evaluated the protocol in a rural primary care clinic over three months.

Main Results:

• The protocol was user-friendly, required minimal training, and integrated smoothly into clinic workflow.
• Diet conversations significantly increased the likelihood of patients making diet changes.
• Patients with lower initial readiness for change showed the greatest increases in intent to change.

Conclusions:

• A brief diet assessment and conversation protocol can be efficiently integrated into primary care visits.
• This approach enhances patient intent to modify their diet.
• Further multi-clinic evaluation is recommended to validate the protocol's effectiveness.