Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics

Evaluating Dietary Quality in Diet Counselling: Progress Update

Increased research on effectiveness and efficiency of lifestyle programs to manage cardio metabolic risk conditions has identified a need for brief diet assessment tools to evaluate initial diet at baseline and to compare counseling results among client groups over time and across programs. In particular, Diet Quality (DQ) indices, such as versions of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) are useful where the focus of treatment is to modify foods or the whole eating pattern. They have advantages in that population data are available for comparison, they focus on those aspects of eating patterns that together are associated with reduced health risk, and they generate a summary score. Current limitations are that a nutrient analysis must also be available to assess sodium, fat, sugar and total caloric intake, thus feasibility in clinical practice remains an issue. This mini-review examines progress in development of brief diet assessment and DQ tools in dietary counseling or lifestyle education programs for individuals with cardio metabolic risk conditions. To improve comparability among published studies, it is recommended that researchers and program evaluators consider using HEI or other current DQ tools relevant to their target population in addition to traditional diet assessment methods. New work is needed to further adapt current DQ tools for validity and feasibility of completion in both clinical counselling and population surveillance contexts.

Author(s):

Brauer, Paula M, Royall, Dawna

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