Family-centered education vs telephone follow-up on nutrition pattern and Body Mass Index of opioid-dependent patients: A quasi-experimental study

Background: Proper nutrition is important for treatment adherence and preventing adverse metabolic indices in Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) in opioid-dependent patients. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a nutrition education program designed based on the family-centered method and telephone follow-up on nutrition patterns and Body Mass Index (BMI) of opioid-dependent patients undergoing MMT. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 60 patients, who had been undergoing MMT for at least one year, at Ibn-e-Sina Psychiatric Hospital of Mashhad, Iran, were selected using the convenience sampling method and assigned to two equal groups (family-centered group and telephone follow-up group) randomly. The participants fulfilled the demographic questionnaire and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) in pre- and post-test (2 months later), and also the Checklist for recording BMI. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16, with a significance level of less than 0.05. Findings: The results showed that the two groups had no statistically significant differences in terms of demographic variables. Protein consumption in the family-centered group significantly increased compared to the telephone follow-up group (P<0.001). Fat and carbohydrate consumption decreased in both groups, but it was not significant (P>0.05). Also, BMI increased in both groups, but it was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results, it seems that family-centered nutrition education is more effective than telephone follow-up, especially to improve protein intake.