Effectiveness of a Patient-Centered Dietary Educational Intervention

Background: A healthy diet is an important component of preventive medicine. With the changing landscape of medicine, physicians are encountering more challenges in educating patients about a healthy diet, so finding innovative ways to educate patients is imperative. This study investigated the effectiveness of an innovative educational intervention based on the United States Department of Agriculture–recommended MyPlate diet. Methods: Based on the assessed need for dietary education, patients were exposed to an educational video and received a handout on the MyPlate diet. The educational video was created to be culturally relevant with patient-informed edits. The handout was taken from www.ChooseMyPlate.gov. The patients who received the intervention were compared to those who were not exposed to the intervention. Data were collected in a primary care clinic for an underserved population in fall 2018 and analyzed in spring 2019 through patient-completed surveys and physician reporting on patient interactions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t tests, chi-squared models, and repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: Among 320 patients, 169 patients were exposed to the educational intervention. Intervention patients had better knowledge of the MyPlate diet (P=0.009), felt it would be easier to change their diet (P=0.03), and were more motivated to have conversations about diet with their physician (P=0.04) compared to those who were not exposed. Patients also enjoyed the video overall. Conclusion: This study shows that using multiple modalities including a patient-centered video and handouts to educate patients about diet is enjoyable to patients and effective in teaching, motivating change, and encouraging communication between patients and physicians.