Efficacy of a food literacy package in the pharmacy: development and evaluation of a prevention methodology to increase food literacy in neighborhood teams in primary care.

Food literacy in primary care
In Flanders, primary care is reforming with a shift from cure to prevention and from monodisciplinary to multi-disciplinary working. Therefore, there is an urge for methodologies to detect people with a disease risk, to give education and embed prevention in primary care. The pharmacy is low profile, often a trust person and on average, a Belgian citizen is visiting the pharmacy monthly. These issues define the pharmacy as an ideal, but underutilized care giver for prevention. The multi-year plan of pharmacies indicates the idea to enhance their role in advising, educating and referring about healthy life style, such as nutrition. To be able to give appropriate advice concerning nutrition and behaviour, and if necessary referring to a dietician or general practitioner, pharmacists need to be educated about answering nutrition related questions, and instruments to screen somebodies food pattern need to be available.
The purpose of the present project is to develop, test and integrate a prevention methodology in the pharmacy, and hence in primary care. The methodology, the food literacy package, includes the following: 1) a catchy information kiosk that attracts the patient by using for example nudging techniques, 2) a nutrition screening tool that can be enrolled by the patient and that will be embedded in the kiosk, and 3) a communication training for pharmacists as well as a training for the involved neighbourhood teams. The food literacy package will be tested in two neighbourhood teams of Zorgzaam Leuven, which exists of a multi-disciplinary team of pharmacists, dieticians and general practitioners and which will take place in close collaboration with the Brabants Apothekers Forum (BAF). The package can thus immediately be integrated in the existing primary care structure. After positive evaluation, the food literacy package will be available for further implementation.