Association between teaching and support skills and subjective effectiveness of nutritional guidance of registered dietitians at hospitals in a Japanese prefecture

Environ Health Prev Med (2014) 19:7280 DOI 10.1007/s12199-013-0358-2

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Association between teaching and support skills and subjective effectiveness of nutritional guidance of registered dietitiansat hospitals in a Japanese prefecture

Akiko Tanaka Masao Kawamura

Kazuko Yamada Ikuharu Morioka

Received: 28 February 2013 / Accepted: 1 August 2013 / Published online: 28 August 2013 The Japanese Society for Hygiene 2013

AbstractObjective The aim of this study is to clarify the association between teaching and support skills and the subjective effectiveness of nutritional guidance of registered dietitians working at hospitals.

Methods We carried out a questionnaire survey of registered dietitians at hospitals in a Japanese prefecture. The utilization of nutritional teaching skills in nutritional guidance was investigated using a self-produced 36-item questionnaire that was designed to be mainly used for diabetic patients in 4 settings: rst guidance, rst assessment, contemplation stage, and preparation stage. The support skills were evaluated by Kikuchis Scale of Social Skills: 18 items. The subjective effectiveness of nutritional guidance was dened by the behavioral change of the patients after nutritional guidance as evaluated by a registered dietitian.

Results There were 75 respondents (response rate46.6 %). Among the teaching skills, basic skills in an interview were often used, but some related to coaching skills were not in common use in nutritional guidance. Based on the results of principal component analysis, we created a scale for scoring the utilization of nutritional teaching skills in each setting. Multiple linear regression analysis illustrated that high subjective effectiveness of nutritional guidance was associated with high score of

teaching skills in the preparation stage setting and high score of support skills.

Conclusions These results show that, in addition to frequent use of nutritional teaching skills, improvement of support skills is also necessary to enhance the effectiveness of nutritional guidance.

Keywords Registered dietitian Nutritional

guidance Effectiveness Support skills Multiple

linear regression analysis

Introduction

Due to changes in lifestyle habits, the number of patients with lifestyle-related diseases is increasing. To prevent and/or cure lifestyle-related diseases, it is necessary to change lifestyle habits, such as dietary habit. In Japan, nutritional guidance to counteract lifestyle-related diseases is often provided by a registered dietitian. In such guidance, it is important to motivate patients and encourage appropriate behaviors [1]. To attain this goal, counseling [24]...