Factors that facilitate compliance to lower fat intake
N. D. Barnard, A. Akhtar and A. Nicholson
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, DC.
The success of dietary interventions that are prescribed to reduce the risk
of heart disease depends on the degree to which patients actually change
their diets. A review of research trials using different diets and various
means of fostering dietary change to reduce cardiac risk factors identified
specific factors that are associated with a greater degree of dietary
change. Contrary to the common conception that strict diets are
unacceptable to patients, those research studies that set stricter limits
on fat intake achieved a greater degree of dietary change than did studies
with more modest goals. Additional factors used by studies that achieved a
lower fat intake include monitoring dietary intake at least monthly, family
involvement, group support, provision of food, initial residential
treatment, the use of vegetarian diets, and symptomatic subjects. These
factors may be useful to researchers and to clinicians seeking to improve
dietary compliance in patients.
