Rapid diet assessment screening tools for cardiovascular disease risk reduction across healthcare settings: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association

Authors: VADIVELOO, MAYA - University Of Rhode Island; LICHTENSTEIN, ALICE - Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging At Tufts University; ANDERSON, CHERYL - University Of California; ASPRY, KAREN - American Heart Association; FORAKER, RANDI - American Heart Association; GRIGGS, SKYLAR - Boston Children'S Hospital; HAYMAN, LAURA - University Of Massachusetts; JOHNSTON, EMILY - Pennsylvania State University; STONE, NEAL - Northwestern University; THORNDIKE, ANNE - Massachusetts General Hospital

Submitted to: Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/30/2020
Publication Date: 7/1/2020
Citation: Vadiveloo, M., Lichtenstein, A.H., Anderson, C.A., Aspry, K., Foraker, R., Griggs, S., Hayman, L.L., Johnston, E., Stone, N.J., Thorndike, A.N. 2020. Rapid diet assessment screening tools for cardiovascular disease risk reduction across healthcare settings: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 13(9):702-715. https://doi.org/10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000094.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000094

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: It is critical that diet quality be assessed and discussed at the point of care with clinicians and other members of the healthcare team to reduce the incidence and improve the management of diet related chronic disease, especially cardiovascular disease. Dietary screening or counseling is not usually a component of routine medical visits. Moreover, numerous barriers exist to the implementation of screening and counseling, including lack of training and knowledge, lack of time, sense of futility, lack of reimbursement, competing demands during the visit, and absence of validated rapid diet screener tools with coupled clinical decision support to identify actionable modifications for improvement. With more widespread use of electronic health records, there is an enormous unmet opportunity to provide evidence-based clinician-delivered dietary guidance using rapid diet screener tools that must be addressed. In this scientific statement from the American Heart Association, we provide rationale for the widespread adoption of rapid diet screener tools in primary care and relevant specialty care prevention settings, discuss the theory and practice-based criteria of a rapid diet screener tool that supports valid and feasible diet assessment and counseling in clinical settings, review existing tools, and discuss opportunities and challenges for integrating a rapid diet screener tool into clinician workflows through the electronic health record.