Promoting Provider Knowledge on the Anti-Inflammatory Mediterranean Diet to Treat Depression

Abstract

Purpose: This QI project aimed to increase baseline knowledge of the MedDiet as an anti-inflammatory option for providers to recommend as an adjunct treatment option for patients with depressive symptomology. The goal was to deliver a brief, evidence-based educational tutorial about the Mediterranean Diet to mental health providers that increased their intent to use aspects of the knowledge gained to inform future treatment decisions and improve outcomes in treating depression. Background: Depression is a global disorder that significantly impacts the quality and quantity of 322 million lives. It leads to massive costs, and barriers remain despite the mainstay treatment of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. Additional treatments are needed given the rising concern, and the Mediterranean Diet has evidence that suggests it contains anti-inflammatory nutritional components that can be used to treat depression as an inflammatory disorder. Methods: Mental healthcare providers from outpatient clinics of Denova Collaborative Healthcare completed a pretest that gathers data on their current assessment of a patient's diet and their current diet recommendation to patients, their knowledge of the MedDiet, their confidence to use it, and its effectiveness to treat depression. The participants then watched a brief educational PowerPoint presentation describing the MedDiet. A posttest assessment was conducted and compared to the pretest. The collected data was analyzed and compared pretest and posttest multiple-choice and Likert scale questions to determine the usefulness of MedDiet education. Results: Six nurse practitioners and one physician’s assistant completed the pretest, educational implementation, and posttest. While no statistical significance was found, some clinical significance was found in data generated by comparing knowledge-based multiple-choice questions and Likert scale ranking questions before and after the educational implementation. Primary obstacles to MedDiet education included time constraints, the critical aspect of adherence, and the challenge of imparting nutritional understanding to patients. Conclusions: This project suggests that providing an asynchronous, online educational implementation may be an effective way to increase provider knowledge of the MedDiet and intent to use it as an adjunctive treatment for depression. Participants indicated that their baseline knowledge, motivation, and confidence in the diet increased after viewing the educational implementation, although barriers exist.