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Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is now being recognised as a healthcare burden in India and abroad. An inevitable increase in its incidence is expected in future, presenting before the physicians a larger number of NAFLD patients to manage. The NAFLD patients are prescribed calorie restricted diets for weight loss, along with increased physical activity as the first line of treatment. However, the real challenge lies in making the patients adhere to this prescription. NAFLD, being asymptomatic, is often overlooked by the patients as well as the physicians. Many patients do not perceive it as a serious problem, unless it reaches an advanced stage. Poor awareness, lack of seriousness towards the disease and unwillingness to change behaviour are the major hurdles in the success of NAFLD treatment. Correct perception about this growing epidemic and adoption of an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach for its effective treatment can go a long way in controlling NAFLD. Initiatives that encourage healthy lifestyle, using the component of behaviour therapy for sustained results, may be a promising solution to this liver condition.

Lifestyle related diseases continue to be a significant burden on the health care system. Health education is a combination of educational strategies that promote voluntary adoption of healthy lifestyle choices and dietary behaviour. The use of simple and validated education and evaluation tools is now increasing in routine clinical practice to aid health status evaluation and communication between the patient, dietitian and the health care provider. Development of effective health education materials is a systematic process which starts with setting up the goals for education, followed by literature review and focus group discussion, content selection, designing the rough draft, seeking expert comments and validation. Questionnaire development should follow a logical and structured approach. Item generation should be based on extensive literature search and target group participation. Validation by the experts makes the questionnaire more meaningful, trustworthy and applicable. Considerable effort goes into designing and testing of these tools in order to ensure that they are effective. For enhancing clinical, dietetic and educational practice, it is pertinent to learn the process of developing these tools scientifically.