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Nutrition‐related knowledge, beliefs and practices of Australian nursing staff
Author(s) -
NOWAK Madeleine,
HARRISON Simone,
HUTTON Lesley
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1747-0080
pISSN - 1446-6368
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2007.00087.x
Subject(s) - medicine , nursing , dieting , family medicine , nutrition education , gerontology , obesity , weight loss
Objective: The purpose of the study was to examine the general food and nutrition‐related beliefs and knowledge of nursing professionals attending post‐partum women. Design: Data were collected by self‐administered questionnaire. Subjects: Three hundred and sixty‐two hospital‐based nursing staff responsible for the care of post‐parturient women. Setting: Eight metropolitan and regional hospitals in Queensland and three maternity hospitals in Canberra. Main outcome measures: Beliefs, opinions and intentions relating to food, nutrition and weight; knowledge of requirements of core foods; and sources of nutrition information. Statistical analysis: Standard statistical tests were used to measure frequencies and assess bivariate relationships. Results: Almost all participants (97.8%) were confident they could give good advice to their patients about a healthy balanced diet. The majority (65.5%) reported providing such advice at least weekly, 27.9% daily, and 19.5% rarely or never gave nutritional advice. The food‐related beliefs of most participants (>85%) were in line with current knowledge for 78% of questions. However, their knowledge of core food requirements for adults was inadequate; only 0.6% gave correct answers to all four food intake questions, 16.8% gave three correct answers, 62% two and 20.7% one correct answer. The most commonly cited sources of nutrition information were professional training (51.4%), reading (38.7%), media (14.9%), self‐education and work‐related experience (10.8%), dietitian (10.5%), school (7.5%), family (6.4%) and dieting (5.0%). Conclusion: Nursing staff frequently provide nutritional advice to post‐partum women. There is a need to ensure such information is accurate. Further research should explore ways in which this can be achieved.