Nutrition Care Services for Adult Obesity in Primary Health Care: Time to Revisit and Define the Role of Detitian

Abstract

Abstract Objectives To survey the nutrition care services for adults overweight and obese in primary health care in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia in 2019 with comparison for the surveyed services in 2016. Methods The study is a cross sectional service evaluation survey. The design and conduct survey was exclusively to define and judge nutrition care services those provided to overweight and obese adults at the governmental-operated primary health care (PHC) in 27 centers in 2019 after integration of the registered dietitians (RD) to the services. Services evaluation used no reference to a standard but 18 of the surveyed PHC in 2019 were previously visited in 2016 to assess the provided nutrition care services for patients in PHC, including obese patients. The re-visit survey was to investigate improvements in services achieved in the year 2019. The survey tool was a structured questionnaire. A paired sample T-Test was used to compare results of the 2016 survey with the 2019 re-visit survey with reference to obesity management. Results Results of comparison showed a significant difference in the provided nutrition care services in the 2016 and 2019 re-visit surveys. Although employing of dietitians in the PHC has improved. However, it did not reach a significant different when compared to the situation in 2016 (P = .088). The 2019 re-visit survey showed a high significant changes considering other health professionals as the main source of nutrition information in PHC as dietitians were noticed to be the main source of nutrition information (P value < .000), when compared to the situation in the 2016 survey. Conclusions The nutrition care services and the integration of RDs in the multidisciplinary approach to manage adults obesity was measured using a service evaluation survey approaches. The incorporation of nutrition care services into primary care will enhance a collaborative patient-centred approach to primary care management of obesity and power all involved health practitioners including RDs to tackle the problem in Saudi Arabia. Funding Sources The Deanship of Scientific Research at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.