Although conventional wisdom suggests that high cholesterol patients will balk at switching to a heart-healthy diet, assuming that the changes will inconvenience them or restrict their enjoyment of food, the study authors noted an opposite effect.
"Contrary to popular belief, there is no apparent reduction, but rather an improvement, in some measures of quality of life and patient satisfaction with medical nutritional therapy for high cholesterol," say Linda M. Delahanty, M.S., R.D., of the Diabetes Center of Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues.
Patients who received the medical nutritional therapy reported being more satisfied with their ability to manage their cholesterol, their health care visits, their appearance and eating habits and their overall health. The counseled group also said that they didn't feel deprived of their enjoyment of food, inconvenienced while shopping or preparing food or restricted from eating out on their new diet plan.
The study results are published in the December issue of the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
In the study, half of a group of 90 high cholesterol patients, women and men ages 28 to 66, received special counseling from a registered dietitian or nutrition professional as part of their medical care for their condition. For six months, the dietitians provided personalized feedback on diet changes, as well as educational materials ranging from brochures, handwritten individual instructions and even recipe suggestions.
The other half of the group received only usual care for high cholesterol from their personal physicians, consisting mostly of verbal advice and preprinted handouts on how to reduce cholesterol
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Contact: Nicole Gustin
ngustin@partners.org
617-724-6425
Center for the Advancement of Health
9-Dec-2002