Videocassette use in diet instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using a five-minute videocassette for increasing diet-related knowledge, for modifying attitudes concerning the importance of eating breakfast, and for changing the breakfast habits or participants in the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial - a long-term, multicenter trial of drug and diet therapy. A videocassette 'Breakfast in a Hurry', was developed and produced by the dietitians at the Baylor-Methodist Lipid Research Clinic. It was designed to increase the adherence of the trial participants to the moderately low-cholesterol protocol diet by demonstrating acceptable breakfast eating patterns. The participants were evaluated on their knowledge of food choices that would constitute a 'balanced meal', on their attitudes about the importance of specific meals, and on their actual eating behaviors as tabulated from seven-day food records. These data were gathered before the patients viewed the videocassette, one week afterward, and two months later. To quantify a behavior change, tabulations were made before and after the instructions. These tabulations were of the components of a balanced breakfast (as defined on the videocassette) which were recorded on the participants' seven-day food records.