Nutritional Care in Psychiatry: Assessing Health Professionals’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practices

Abstract

Contemporary evidence suggests that proper nutrition plays a key role in the treatment and prevention of mental illness. This hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study sought to examine health professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward patient nutritional care. The study was conducted at the Bono Regional Hospital in Sunyani, Ghana. Eighteen (18) health professionals working at the hospital’s psychiatric unit were recruited for the study through the census. Semi-structured, self-administered questionnaires, prepared and administered via Google forms, were used to collect data for the study. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. There was a 100% response rate. Males constituted 66.7% of the sample. More than one-fourth (27.8%) of the respondents were community mental health officers, and the majority of them were full-time workers (66.7%). Most of the respondents worked 3-5 days per week (77.8%) and 6–8 hours per day (83.3%). The larger proportion of the sample had worked in the health sector for less than 2 years (72.2%). Based on our specified criteria, most of the respondents had adequate knowledge (83.3%), a positive attitude (94.4%), and good practices (83.3%) toward patient nutrition. Overall, knowledge, attitude, and practices toward patient nutritional care were good, suggesting that nutritional care has been recognized as an essential component of the treatment and prevention of mental illness at Bono Regional Hospital. It is however important that the management of the hospital ensures timely and adequate provision of essential logistics and resources needed for patient nutritional care.