Abstract
The new era of healthcare emphasizes the integration of nutritional care into healthcare management to improve patient outcomes. Previous studies indicated that nutritional knowledge among physicians is insufficient. Thus far, only a limited number of studies have assessed nutritional knowledge among Saudi physicians, without providing data regarding their views toward practice against malnutrition. Therefore, the aim of the present cross-sectional study was to address this knowledge gap among Saudi physicians in the hospitals of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A total of 117 physicians were recruited using a questionnaire to collect physician characteristics, nutritional knowledge, and knowledge and practice related to malnutrition. The mean nutritional knowledge scores were low (50%; SD: 24%). Saudi physicians scored high in questions related to the medical field; however, their knowledge related to nutrition topics was poor. The majority of Saudi physicians agreed that the nutritional management of malnourished patients was difficult at screening (79%), assessment (78%), and treatment (78%) stages. The self-assessed knowledge and interest of physicians toward malnutrition was modest, and they found the malnutrition management to be only moderately relevant to their work. Nutritional knowledge and practice against malnutrition among Saudi physicians is insufficient. Saudi physicians require proper education and training in nutrition.
Highlights
Nutrition is an important factor in the maintenance and the promotion of good health, the prevention of malnutrition and disease, and the treatment of chronic disease throughout life [1].Collaboration of an interdisciplinary healthcare team is required, especially in the hospital setting, to ensure high-quality nutritional care [2,3]
We investigated the nutritional knowledge and the nutritional practice against malnutrition among Saudi physicians in the hospitals of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The consistency of our findings with those of other studies from Western [5,6,7], Asian [12], and Gulf countries [15,16,17] suggests that insufficient nutritional knowledge and practice against malnutrition among physicians may be an international issue
Summary
Collaboration of an interdisciplinary healthcare team is required, especially in the hospital setting, to ensure high-quality nutritional care [2,3]. The new era of quality care requires the involvement of a dietitian in the healthcare team (i.e., nurses, pharmacists, and physicians) to perform a nutritional assessment/diagnosis and develop evidence-based interventions [3]. Nurses may perform the initial nutrition screening and develop a plan to facilitate patient compliance, pharmacists evaluate drug-nutrient interactions, and physicians oversee the overall care plan and documentation to support reimbursement for services [3]. Current research supports the inclusion of nutrition courses in the curriculum of health programs as well as for continuing health education [5,6,7,8]
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