Nutrition knowledge and attitudes of a multi disciplinary team in an elderly assessment and rehabilitation hospital

Abstract

Title: Nutrition Knowledge and Attitudes of a Multi Disciplinary Team in an Elderly Assessment and Rehabilitation Hospital. Introduction: Nutrition plays a major role in the morbidity and mortality of older adults. A lack of nutritionists and dieticians is prevalent in the clinical setting and this cites the need for nutrition to be included in the curricula of all professionals. Aim: The study aimed to determine a multidisciplinary team's: level of education; level of nutrition specific education; source of nutrition knowledge; perceived level of nutrition knowledge; perceived adequacy of nutrition knowledge; profession; and the factors refraining participants from advising patients on nutrition matters. The studied factors were then compared to the sample's level of nutrition knowledge. Research Design: Research was carried out by means of an incidence sample of 50 members of staff from Zammit Clapp Hospital. The research design was that of a nonexperimental descriptive cross-sectional survey, utilising quantitative research methods. An analysis of variance was used to calculate the level of statistical significance between results. Data protection and ethical issues were abided by strictly throughout the research project. Results: Participants were generally found to have a low level of nutrition knowledge. Higher levels of nutrition knowledge were evident with: increasing levels of nutrition education; lower incidence of postgraduate studies; pharmacists; those who obtained their nutrition information primarily from courses; those who perceived they had poor levels of nutrition knowledge; and those who perceived non-compliance as a primary barrier to nutrition counselling. Levels of nutrition education were found to be low and 82% did not feel that they had enough nutrition knowledge to counsel patients. This was also found to be the primary barrier stopping individuals from counselling patients. The majority of studied individuals obtained their nutrition knowledge primarily from the media. Conclusion: Further nutrition education is necessary and should be carried out by means of specific nutrition courses. It is also clear that more needs to be done at an undergraduate level and it is recommended that nutritionists and dieticians become more involved in the clinical training of health care professionals.