Dietary counselling – how effective and cost-effective is it?

Dietary counselling – how effective and cost-effective is it?

This Public Health Expert blog article discusses the literature on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of dietary counselling as a health intervention.

The authors  state “Most studies suggest that dietary counselling is effective though the benefits are typically modest and short-term. The literature on cost-effectiveness is mixed, and there is substantial uncertainty about long-run cost-effectiveness given the typically short-term trials involved. Addressing the obesogenic environment will have potentially (much) larger gains, and due to substantial reductions in obesity-related disease it is likely to be cost-saving. However, governments, policy-makers and the public are often interested in counselling interventions, necessitating close attention to cost-effectiveness of these interventions relative to more structural changes to the environment.”