Why cardiac patients do not follow the nutritionist's advice: Barriers in nutritional advice perceived in rehabilitation

The aim of the present study was to identify reasons why cardiac patients do not follow nutritional advice which is given during rehabilitation. Barriers or expected problems in nutritional advice perceived during rehabilitation were obtained via a structured interview. Forty-eight cardiac patients (41-82 years; 15 females, 33 males) were interviewed during rehabilitation. The majority of patients (54%) reported one or more barriers. The most frequently reported barriers were associated with situations in which the patients were eating in company (52%), or in which there was too much food available (44%). Another common reason for non-compliance was that healthy foods did not taste good (42%). On the other hand, barriers were seldom associated with disinterest (4%) or lack of knowledge (4%). These results indicate that non-compliance in nutritional counselling may be associated with emotional responses related to eating and with lack of social skills to manage eating in social situations.