Table 6.
Satisfaction with study participation from a questionnaire administered at the final visit. Data shown are mean and SD for answers on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being “very much so” and 1 being “not at all”.
| Characteristic | Healthy Eating Diet | Mediterranean Diet |
|---|---|---|
| I feel good about being in the study | 4.93, 0.25 | 4.96, 0.20 |
| The diet was easy to follow | 4.47, 0.63 | 4.43, 0.54 |
| I have time to follow diet | 4.74, 0.43 | 4.64, 0.61 |
| The diet takes more time than my usual diet | 3.02, 1.34 | 3.28, 1.23 |
| Others at home make it difficult to follow the diet | 1.69, 0.90 | 2.02, 1.22 |
| Being in the study was stressful | 1.58, 0.78 | 1.65, 0.97 |
| Finishing is like a weight being lifted from my shoulders | 2.20, 1.07 | 1.98, 1.03 |
| I like phone calls to minimize appointments | 4.44, 0.88 | 4.41, 0.83 |
| I would recommend this diet to my family and friends | 4.84, 0.37 | 4.89, 0.31 |
| I want to keep following this diet after the study is over | 4.91, 0.29 | 4.85, 0.36 |
| Factor 1a | −0.018(1.17), 0.31(0.95) | 0.017(0.83), 0.16(1.29) |
| Factor 2a | −0.06(1.14), 0.28(1.86) | 0.055(1.12), 0.07(1.12) |
| Factor 3a | −0.06(0.86), 0.22(1.16) | 0.06(1.12), 0.44(1.41) |
The item responses were factor analyzed using the principal component extraction methods with a varimax rotation using age as a covariate. Factor 1 contained four items: “feel good about being the study”, “diet was easy to follow”, “have time to follow diet”, “recommend diet to family and friends”. Factor 2 contained “diet takes more time than usual diet”, “being in the study was stressful”, and “finishing is like a weight being lifted”. Factor 3 contained “would recommend diet to family and friends”, “want to keep following the diet”, and “would like phone calls to minimize appointments”. Data shown are mean (SD), median (inter-quartile range). Based on the linear regression analysis, none of these factors were significantly different across the two diet arms.