Comparison of nutrition knowledge among health professionals, patients with eating disorders and the general population

Abstract

Aim: To investigate and compare the level of nutrition knowledge of health professionals, patients with eating disorders and individuals without an eating disorder as controls. Methods: Participants were recruited online through an Australian and New Zealand professional eating disorder organisation and community eating disorder organisations and a university in Australia. Assessment was conducted online using the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire and SCOFF. Demographic data were also collected. Results: Dietitians had greater nutrition knowledge than all other health professionals, except medical doctors. Psychologists and dietitians had similar knowledge for choosing everyday foods. Dietitians had greater nutrition knowledge than eating disorder patients and controls in all areas of nutrition knowledge, while other health professionals had similar knowledge to patients. Patients with eating disorders had greater knowledge of sources of nutrients than controls. Conclusions: Australian health professionals exhibited higher levels of nutrition knowledge than health professionals in previous studies in other countries. However, non-dietitian health professionals had similar levels of knowledge to individuals with eating disorders. Training and continuing education in nutrition is needed so health professionals can confidently identify when a patient has misleading information about nutrition and either correct the misinformation or refer the patient on to a qualified dietitian.

Nutrition knowledge of dietetic undergraduate students: An exploratory study

“…This has implications for the development of curriculum that accommodate the needs of student cohorts with varying educational backgrounds. It is interesting to note that by the completion of program, the mean overall knowledge score was similar to that of nutrition experts, 22,24 and lowest scores were higher than community samples. 11 This suggests that Table 2 Overall and section scores on the Re-examined General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (R-GNKQ) for students enrolled in a nutrition (NUT) or nutrition and dietetics (ND) program presented as mean ± SD, range and percent accuracy The second year cohort had significantly greater score then the first year cohort.…”

“…Higher nutrition knowledge scores in our study could be explained by the unique characteristics of dietetic students. The sample in the present study, as per majority of other studies evaluating nutrition knowledge, was predominately female. However, our sample is representative of both the student cohort and workforce of ND and OT .…”

“…This has implications for the development of curriculum that accommodate the needs of student cohorts with varying educational backgrounds. It is interesting to note that by the completion of program, the mean overall knowledge score was similar to that of nutrition experts, and lowest scores were higher than community samples . This suggests that regardless of educational background students can attain a level of general nutrition knowledge on par to qualified dietitians near the completion of the ND program.…”

Uncontrolled Web-Based Administration of Surveys on Factual Health-Related Knowledge: A Randomized Study of Untimed Versus Timed Quizzing

“…This study probably suffers from participation bias and positive response bias, since many more females than males completed the survey; indeed, not only were more females recruited, but also the participation rate of male students was lower than expected. It has been ascertained that women display higher participation rates in scientific studies [ 50 ] and that their participation always tends to be greater in surveys on nutrition knowledge [ 22 - 24 , 26 ]. However, since the aim of our study was not to evaluate knowledge but to compare the two survey mode conditions, these types of bias have a limited influence on the results.…”

What is being conveyed to health professionals and consumers through web and print sources of nutrition information?

“…While some primary care practitioners concur with this view, many GPs do not see their role as one which encompasses the giving of dietary guidance (Fuller et al 2003), perceiving that practice nurses are better placed in this regard (McClinchy et al 2011). Some studies have found that, compared to dietitians, a sizeable proportion of primary care health professionals have significant gaps in their nutrition knowledge (Moore et al 2000;Ho et al 2011;McClinchy et al 2011). Whilst dietetics professionals often see themselves as the primary source of nutrition education for their medical and allied health professional peers (Ayoob et al 2002), it is difficult to determine whether this happens in practice.…”