Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice Article in Press, Corrected Proof doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2006.12.005 Factors affecting adherence to a raw vegan diet Lilli B Link Summary The purpose of this study was to evaluate adherence and identify predictors of adherence to a raw vegan diet (i.e., uncooked plant foods) following a stay at a raw vegan institute. In this cohort study of guests at a raw vegan institute, subjects completed written questionnaires upon arrival and 12 weeks later. Of 107 eligible guests, 84 participated. Mean age was 54 years, 23 were male, and 73 white. Fifty-one completed the 12-week follow-up. Eight (16%) reported their diet to be >= 80% raw vegan at baseline and 14 (28%) at follow-up. Based on a raw vegan dietary adherence score (range 0?42) created for this study, mean adherence (SD) increased from 15.1 (5.4) to 17.0 (5.8) over 12 weeks (p=0.03). Baseline predictors of adherence included: education (beta=0.95), severity of disease (beta=0.98), and self-efficacy to adhere (beta=0.72). Future interventions that evaluate this diet should address self-efficacy, an important, potentially remediable predictor of adherence. Article Outline Introduction Methods Statistical analyses Results Discussion Acknowledgements Appendix. Appendix References Interesting quotes: However, only 14 [out of 84] reported at least 80% adherence to the raw vegan diet. In addition to already following the diet, the variables that best predicted adherence to the diet were more education, greater comorbid disease, greater self-efficacy for adherence, fewer close friends and relatives, and worse physical quality of life. This study provides evidence that some people, especially those with severe disease diagnoses, can adopt and adhere to the extreme dietary change from a largely Western to a raw vegan diet; but even in this self-selected population, only a small proportion were able to adhere strictly. PS I have read full-text. I have some reservations re: study methods, and plan to discuss them with the authors/journal editor. Sample paragraphs, from Introduction: Studies have identified a variety of factors associated with dietary change.[1] and [2] According to one heuristic framework, the "adherence model," dietary adherence is affected by numerous variables, including self-efficacy, perceived control over one's health, perceived severity of the illness, social support, readiness to change, past adherence, and sociodemographic factors.3 Although considerable information about predictors of relatively modest dietary changes is available,[1] and [2] little is known about the factors associated with more extreme dietary changes. Raw vegan food (uncooked food prepared without any animal products, dairy, or eggs) has become increasingly popular recently. In the ancient world, the Pythagoreans advocated a raw food diet. Germans who settled in Southern California at the turn of the 19th century brought the raw vegan diet to the United States, and in the 1960s, Ann Wigmore, co-founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute, further popularized it.4 Advocates maintain that the diet benefits both healthy individuals and those with chronic disease. We chose to study the raw vegan diet because it appears to have a number of health benefits, is increasingly popular, and has not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of adherence to a raw vegan dietary program among guests at a raw vegan institute. The diet provided and promoted at this institute consists of uncooked organic vegetable dishes and wheatgrass and other vegetable juices (see Box 1). We chose to study this type of diet because it has been described as beneficial in some anecdotal reports 13 and because each of its components is reported to have health benefits.[18], [19] and [20] Full-text on sciencedirect website. Tom Billings