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What outcome measures do Australian dietitians use to evaluate nutrition education interventions with individual patients?
Author(s) -
CANT Robyn
Publication year - 2008
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.1747-0080.2008.00323.x
Subject(s) - medicine , descriptive statistics , psychological intervention , family medicine , focus group , scale (ratio) , nursing , health care , medical education , mathematics , statistics , physics , marketing , quantum mechanics , economics , business , economic growth
Aim: To examine outcome measures used by Australian dietitians in evaluating their nutrition education of individual patients. Methods: A sequential qualitative—quantitative design was used. First, a purposive sample of 46 clinical dietitians working in Victorian hospitals, community or private practice attended an audio‐recorded focus group or in‐depth interview. Transcribed narratives were open‐coded to identify themes and results used to develop a questionnaire to survey Australian dietitians nationally to ask about patient education strategies and evaluation methods. In 2006, 258 dietitians (16%) responded to a Web‐based questionnaire. Criterion for extraction of results was ≥70% agreement on response items when measured on a 5‐point scale. Descriptive statistics were used and between‐group analyses were conducted using χ 2 and Spearman's rank order correlation (if P < 0.05). Results: Nine outcome measures were confirmed as valid in the categories of direct nutrition outcomes, clinical and health status outcomes and patient value‐based care outcomes. There was no significant difference in practice by work category, or time since qualification. Evaluation was most commonly performed prospectively at completion of a consultation, or as part of review consultations. The most common barrier to outcomes research was a lack of time. However, a lack of research skill or health team collaboration may also be a barrier as dietitians did not routinely research or report on outcomes for groups of patients, with potential to identify possible practice improvements. Conclusion: Research training may be needed. Further investigation is recommended to develop best practice policies for dietetics outcomes research.