Informed consent model for nutrition practice: what it must include

An informed consent form is not a document to protect you: it is evidence that the client understood what you are going to do and decided freely. That it also protects you is a consequence, and it only works if the document does its original job.

The most common mistake is treating consent as a signing formality. A document signed without prior explanation does not evidence informed consent: it evidences a signature. What gives the document value is the information process preceding it, which is why the text should reflect that conversation rather than replace it.

The eight blocks

Block by block

Nature of the intervention

This is where most later conflicts are prevented. State explicitly what a nutrition intervention is and is not: that it does not replace medical treatment, that it does not diagnose conditions, and that coordination with other professionals remains necessary when the case calls for it.

Goals

Written for this client, not generic. A goal phrased as "improve nutrition" informs nobody; one phrased as "reduce weight at 0.5-1 kg per week over the next three months, reviewing every four weeks" sets a verifiable expectation.

Risks and limitations

The block that gets trimmed most and is needed most. Without drama, but without omissions:

• Results depend on adherence and vary between people.
• No specific result or timeframe is guaranteed.
• Digestive discomfort or other effects may occur during adaptation.
• Certain conditions require referral or parallel medical follow-up.
• The plan rests on the information the client provides: if it is incomplete, the plan may not be appropriate.

Alternatives

Always include the option of not intervening. A consent form presenting only one path is not a free decision, it is an acceptance.

Data processing

Do not merge care consent and data consent into a single "I accept everything" block. Point to your privacy information and keep non-care consents separate: photographs, publishing cases, and marketing each get their own independent box.

Additional consents

These do not belong in the main document. Each is a separate decision and must be refusable without affecting care:

• Clinical photographs: why they are taken, where they are stored, who can see them.
• Use of images on social media or your site: a different consent from the above.
• Recording of online sessions, if any.
• Marketing communications and newsletter.
• Communication with other professionals treating the client.
• Use of dissociated data for teaching or research.

Minors and people with modified capacity

Consent is given by the legal representative, but that does not remove the minor’s right to be informed and heard according to their maturity. In practice: inform the minor too, in language suited to their age, record their view, and note it. With adolescents it also helps to agree in advance what information is shared with parents and what is not.

Mistakes that invalidate it

• Signing it after the first consultation, once the intervention has begun.
• A single document mixing care, images, and marketing.
• Pre-ticked boxes.
• Technical language the client cannot follow without explanation.
• Not giving the client a copy.
• Not dating the document or noting its version.
• Not updating it when the scope of treatment changes.

Fitting it into the first visit

1. Send it before the appointment so the client can read it without time pressure.
2. Spend the first minutes of the visit explaining it and answering questions.
3. Sign after the explanation, not before.
4. Give the client a copy and keep yours with date and version.
5. Note in the clinical record that they were informed and questions were resolved.