Developing a tool for health professionals involved in producing and evaluating nutrition education leaflets

Introduction Nutrition education leaflets are widely used by dietitians and many dietitians are also involved in their production. However, there does not appear to be a suitable tool to assist health professionals to produce or evaluate nutrition education leaflets. There are Guidelines available t hat are either specifically concerned with nutrition but for all educationa l materials or specifically for use with leaflets, but not necessarily to d o with nutrition. The aim of this study was to develop a tool suitable to a ssist health professionals when producing and evaluating nutrition educatio n leaflets. Methods Patients and dietitians were surveyed by self-completion questionna ire to determine their opinions of the importance of various criteria which might be applied to nutrition education leaflets were. Results The research revealed significant differences in the opinions of di etitians and patients for seven of 11 criteria. Conclusion The evaluation tool developed was based on the patients' ranking of all the criteria. Its reliability was assessed amongst a group of dieti tians in Dorset but its wider use and acceptability should be looked at. Th e tool is likely to be appropriate as a checklist for health professionals producing new nutrition education leaflets or as a framework for evaluating existing nutrition education leaflets.