Nutritional knowledge of health care professionals working in the eating disorders

Abstract

Background: Clinicians working in the eating disorders require a good working knowledge of basic nutrition. As different professional groups are trained in this knowledge to different degrees, it is not possible to assume that all clinicians working with the eating disorders have an equivalent knowledge base. The aim of this study is to determine the nutritional knowledge of different groups of professionals working with the eating disorders. Method: The participants were 65 clinicians (dietitians, nurses, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists) working with the eating disorders and a group of 23 non-clinicians. All participants completed a standardised measure of knowledge of nutritional content of a range of foodstuffs, plus a brief form of the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-2). Results: Dietitians had the highest level of knowledge regarding carbohydrate, protein and fat, but were no different to the other groups in their knowledge of fibre content. The psychiatrists were the next best informed. The clinical psychologists and nurses were no better than the lay group. Levels of knowledge about nutrition were unrelated to most personal characteristics, though there were some links to the clinician's own eating attitudes. Conclusions: Given the central role of nutrition in treating the eating disorders, it is clearly important that teams include professionals with nutritional knowledge. These findings indicate that simple experience in the field is not sufficient to ensure such knowledge, and that specialised dietitians are more likely to be able to provide the necessary treatment resource. Therefore, multidisciplinary teams should include specialist dietetic input.

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

“…Nutrition counselling is an integral part of the treatment of EDs, and it is the responsibility of all HPs to be able to identify a client's inaccurate knowledge, provide accurate information and recognise when to refer to a dietitian 15 . To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare different HPs, ED patients and healthy controls on their knowledge of multiple areas of nutrition.…”

“…However, minimal research has been undertaken into the level of nutrition knowledge of HPs who treat patients with EDs, a field where one would expect greater nutrition knowledge among HPs. We have identified only one study that investigated HPs who work in the ED field, by Cordery and Waller 15 . This study found that dietitians had the greatest nutrition knowledge, and nurses and psychologists did not have greater knowledge than the general population.…”

Preliminary Report on Dietitians’ Views and Confidence Related to Nutrition Care for Eating Disorders

“…Question items were created based on existing literature related to RDs' eating disorder-related knowledge, beliefs, and practices. [6][7][8]12,13 However, these sources were limited. In addition, 5 items to determine perceived self-efficacy related to providing eating disorder counseling were included, such as, "I am confi-dent in counseling individuals with eating disorders."…”

Nutrition and dietetic practice in eating disorder management

“…Dietitians should be the provider of nutrition intervention in eating disorders because medical nutrition therapy is the core skill of the dietitian, it is the role that we are qualified for (ADA, 2006), and dietitians are able to provide the most accurate information to clients (Williams & O'Connor, 2000;Cordery & Waller, 2006). As stated by Cordery, the role of the dietitian therefore extends further than advising the patient because it is necessary also to educate other clinicians (Cordery & Waller, 2006).…”

“…A study examining nutrition knowledge of 65 clinicians working with eating disorder patients demonstrated that dietitians have the best nutritional knowledge of the clinician groups, and there was a poor level of nutritional knowledge in nondietitian healthcare professionals working with eating disorder patients, even though nutrition is central to the pathology and treatment of this disorder (Cordery & Waller, 2006). They recommend that therapists have sufficient basic nutritional knowledge to be able to identify distortions in their patients and therefore effectively provide nutritional intervention (Cordery & Waller, 2006). The involvement of a dietitian, within a multidisciplinary framework, is of great benefit in the treatment of eating disorders (Kirk, 1993).…”