Suitability of the Available Options About Computer Applications to Record the Initial Assessment of the Nutritional Care Process: A Pilot Study in Spanish Software

Mario Navarro Gomis,José Miguel Martínez-Sanz,Isabel Sospedra,María Teresa Romá-Ferri

doi:10.3390/app11020534

Mario Navarro Gomis, José Miguel Martínez-Sanz + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11020534

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: Jan 7, 2021
License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Alicante

Abstract

Background: Nutritional software applications are tools for professional care. These applications allow the management of relevant information, facilitating and speeding up the diet treatment, and are designed for a general population with potential nutritional problems. The aim to establish the degree to which existing nutritional software in Spanish covers the nutritional assessment aspects that dietitian needs to manage the nutritional care process (NCP). Methods: A descriptive-comparative study of four open-access and/or trial version nutritional software applications was performed, focusing on the informational content that must be recorded by the dietitian when performing a nutritional assessment. The usability and usefulness of the NCP were analyzed by means of a dichotomous scale (yes/no) and a five-level Likert scale (very complete, complete, basic, poor, very poor). Data collection was carried out from December 2018 to April 2019. Results: The software applications collect personal data in a very intuitive way, and with respect to the nutritional assessment, the applications generally comply with the collection of the basic information necessary for subsequent dietetic planning and are complete in the coinciding items, especially in Dietopro® (Valencia, Spain) and Easydiet® (Navarra, Spain). Conclusion: The applications are generally adapted to the ADA and BDA specifications, though the information is dispersed and without a sequential order for professionals.

Highlights

The vision of nutritional care has evolved over the years, from a purely biological orientation to the present day, when it is considered a preventive health treatment that encompasses a multifactorial context that influences the individual [1,2]
The nutritional care process (NCP) was described in the UK, for the first time, in the curriculum learning outcomes published by the Board of Dietitians in 2000 and in the Standards of Competence established by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) since 2007 [4]
In the nutritional assessment section, when comparing the items provided by the software with respect to the information blocks established by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (ADA), the biochemical data in Easydiet® and Equilibra® stand out as a basic, being poor or very poor in the other software

Summary

Introduction

The vision of nutritional care has evolved over the years, from a purely biological orientation to the present day, when it is considered a preventive health treatment that encompasses a multifactorial context that influences the individual [1,2]. The NCP was described in the UK, for the first time, in the curriculum learning outcomes published by the Board of Dietitians in 2000 and in the Standards of Competence established by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) since 2007 [4] In both references, the process is constituted of four well-differentiated phases, arranged sequentially and which feed into each other: nutritional assessment, diagnosis, intervention Dietetic Association, BDA, subdivides it into two stages: strategy and implementation), and nutritional monitoring or evaluation [3,4] This frame of reference must be visible in the care records used by the dietitian [5].

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