The P.O.S.T Guidelines for Nutrition Blogs: A Modified e-Delphi Study

Communication Skills: A Scoping Review of Experiences, Perceptions, and Use in Dietetics Practice

BACKGROUND

Communication skills are a cornerstone of practice for dietitians. The field of dietetics is evolving and there is a need to synthesize the available literature on communication skills to improve the effectiveness of patient consultations and inform practitioner development.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aimed to identify the research literature relating to communication skills used in dietetics practice and perceptions and experiences of dietetics students, dietitians, and patients regarding communication skills.

METHODS

This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and best practice guidance. Five databases (Medline, Embase, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Education Resources Information Center, and PsycInfo), two theses databases, and conference proceedings for 8 dietetics and health professions education associations were systematically searched for research on dietitians' communication skills. This included skills used in dietitian-patient communication, in communication interactions in different employment contexts, and diverse forms of communication (verbal, written, technological) and the views of dietetics students, dietitians, and patients, regarding communication skills. The search had no geographical or time limits. Studies were independently screened by two authors.

RESULTS

The 70 included studies spanned 45 years and were organized into four thematic categories: importance of communication skills in dietetics practice, development of communication skills, communication skills for dietitian-patient communication, and communication skills for wider dietetics practice. Sixty-five (92.9%) of the studies specifically explored the communication skills used for dietitian-patient consultations, including rapport building, questioning, listening, paraphrasing, and clarifying, whereas skills such as intercultural communication were less researched.

CONCLUSIONS

There is consensus between patients and dietitians regarding the skills that contribute to effective dietitian-patient communication. Areas less explored in the literature include the skills needed for intercultural communication and those needed for science communication. Greater understanding of the communication skills needed for contemporary nutrition and dietetics practice will guide education strategies for the development of dietitians.

Prescription for Digital Evolution: Transformative Recommendations for Pharmacy Practice in the Digital Age

Increased administrative tasks, evolving expectations of care and advancement in practice scope have rapidly advanced digital health. Health policy has acknowledged the need for evaluation to determine the technological needs of clinicians, including pharmacists, to practice to full and top of scope. There is an emergent need for recommendations to address the technological transformation to enable community pharmacists' practice. This study aimed to develop digital health recommendations, through expert consensus, for the government, pharmacy professional associations, pharmacy enterprises and software vendors, to facilitate community pharmacists' practice. A modified Delphi survey was conducted online in February-March 2024. Pharmacists with digital health expertise were purposively recruited. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement with the initial 24 research-derived statements in round 1. Consensus was defined a priori as ≥80% of participants strongly agreeing or agreeing with a statement and a standard deviation of ≤1.00. Review of participants' free-text comments progressively reduced and refined the statements. All 22 participants completed the modified Delphi study in 3 survey rounds. Participants represented every Australian jurisdiction. Eighteen participants had more than 10 years of professional experience. Sixteen recommendations emerged: 6 for government, 2 for pharmacy professional associations, 4 for pharmacy enterprises and 4 for software vendors. The majority of recommendations require financial investment and harmonization of legislation across jurisdictions. Adoption of these recommendations, with significant investment across partners in the healthcare system and technology providers, will enable pharmacists to more effectively and safely practice utilizing technology solutions.

Development of a bronchopulmonary dysplasia nutrition focused physical examination tool: A modified Delphi study

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this study were to identify factors impacting nutrition needs in infants and children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). A modified Delphi approach to obtain consensus among pediatric registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) was used to create a BPD-specific nutrition focused physical examination (NFPE) tool.

STUDY DESIGN

RDNs, recruited through pediatric nutrition professional associations, completed a survey rating proposed NFPE components on a Likert scale of 1-5 allowing open-ended responses in a two-round Delphi. Responses were analyzed, deidentified, and results were returned to panelists for in-round feedback. Consensus was defined a priori as 75% agreement for usefulness or relevance ± 1 standard deviation.

RESULTS

Six domains (anthropometrics, body composition, development, gastrointestinal, respiratory, and physical signs) and 38 components achieved consensus.

CONCLUSION

Components for an evidence-based tool to enhance nutrition assessment in infants and children with BPD were identified with consensus agreement by an expert panel of 19 pediatric RDNs.

Web-Based Content on Diet and Nutrition Written in Japanese: Infodemiology Study Based on Google Trends and Google Search

BACKGROUND

The increased availability of content of uncertain integrity obtained through the internet is a major concern. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive scrutiny of the fitness-for-purpose of web-based content on diet and nutrition.

OBJECTIVE

This cross-sectional study aims to describe diet- and nutrition-related web-based content written in Japanese, identified via a systematic extraction strategy using Google Trends and Google Search.

METHODS

We first identified keywords relevant for extracting web-based content (eg, blogs) on diet and nutrition written in Japanese using Google Trends. This process included identification of 638 seed terms, identification of approximately 1500 pairs of related queries (top) and search terms, the top 10% of which were extracted to identify 160 relevant pairs of related queries (top) and search terms, and identification of 107 keywords for search. We then extracted relevant web-based content using Google Search.

RESULTS

The content (N=1703) examined here was extracted following a search based on 107 keywords. The most common themes included food and beverages (390/1703, 22.9%), weight management (366/1703, 21.49%), health benefits (261/1703, 15.33%), and healthy eating (235/1703, 13.8%). The main disseminators were information technology companies and mass media (474/1703, 27.83%), food manufacturers (246/1703, 14.45%), other (236/1703, 13.86%), and medical institutions (214/1703, 12.57%). Less than half of the content (790/1703, 46.39%) clearly indicated the involvement of editors or writers. More than half of the content (983/1703, 57.72%) was accompanied by one or more types of advertisement. The proportion of content with any type of citation reference was 40.05% (682/1703). The themes and disseminators of content were significantly associated with the involvement of editors or writers, accompaniment with advertisement, and citation of reference. In particular, content focusing on weight management was more likely to clearly indicate the involvement of editors or writers (212/366, 57.9%) and to be accompanied by advertisement (273/366, 74.6%), but less likely to have references cited (128/366, 35%). Content from medical institutions was less likely to have citation references (62/214, 29%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights concerns regarding the authorship, conflicts of interest (advertising), and the scientific credibility of web-based diet- and nutrition-related information written in Japanese. Nutrition professionals and experts should take these findings seriously because exposure to nutritional information that lacks context or seems contradictory can lead to confusion and backlash among consumers. However, more research is needed to draw firm conclusions about the accuracy and quality of web-based diet- and nutrition-related content and whether similar results can be obtained in other major mass media or social media outlets and even other languages.

Defining and reporting activity patterns: a modified Delphi study

BACKGROUND

Despite significant interest in assessing activity patterns in different populations, there has been no consensus concerning the definition and operationalisation of this term. This has limited the comparability, interpretability, and synthesis of study findings to date. The aim of this study was to establish a consensus regarding the way in which activity patterns and activity pattern components are defined and reported.

METHODS

The activity patterns literature was searched to identify experts to be invited to participate and to develop a proposed definition of activity patterns and activity pattern components. A three-round modified Delphi survey was conducted online (November 2021 to May 2022). In Round 1, participants were asked to rate their agreement with a proposed activity patterns definition, which also included six activity pattern components (e.g., activity intensity, activity bout, transitions), six examples of activity patterns (e.g., frequency of postural transitions in discrete time periods) and eight items for reporting activity patterns in future research (n = 21 items). Open-ended questions enabled participants to provide further comments and suggestions for additional items. Consensus was defined a priori as ≥ 80% participants rating their agreement with an item. In Round 2, participants were asked to rate their agreement with 25 items (13 original items, eight amended, and four new). In Round 3, participants rated their agreement with 10 items (five original items, four amended, and one new).

RESULTS

Twenty experts in activity patterns research participated in Round 1, with response rates of 80% and 60% in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively. The proposed activity pattern definition, all activity pattern components definitions, four of the six activity pattern examples, and 10 items in the activity patterns reporting framework achieved consensus. The removal of one activity component item between Rounds 1 and 2 achieved consensus.

CONCLUSION

This modified Delphi study achieved consensus for defining and reporting activity patterns for the first time. This consensus definition enables standardisation of activity patterns terminology, which is important given the significant interest in quantifying how individuals accumulate their physical activity and sedentary behaviour across the lifespan to inform the development of future public health guidelines and interventions efforts.

Development of Principles for Health-Related Information on Social Media: Delphi Study

Background

Health-related misinformation can be propagated via social media and is a threat to public health. Several quality assessment tools and principles to evaluate health-related information in the public domain exist; however, these were not designed specifically for social media.

Objective

This study aims to develop Principles for Health-related Information on Social Media (PRHISM), which can be used to evaluate the quality of health-related social media content.

Methods

A modified Delphi approach was used to obtain expert consensus on the principles and functions of PRHISM. Health and social media experts were recruited via Twitter, email, and snowballing. A total of 3 surveys were administered between February 2021 and May 2021. The first survey was informed by a literature review and included open-ended questions and items from existing quality assessment tools. Subsequent surveys were informed by the results of the proceeding survey. Consensus was deemed if ≥80% agreement was reached, and items with consensus were considered relevant to include in PRHISM. After the third survey, principles were finalized, and an instruction manual and scoring tool for PRHISM were developed and circulated to expert participants for final feedback.

Results

A total of 34 experts consented to participate, of whom 18 (53%) responded to all 3 Delphi surveys. In total, 13 principles were considered relevant and were included in PRHISM. When the instructions and PRHISM scoring tool were circulated, no objections to the wording of the final principles were received.

Conclusions

A total of 13 quality principles were included in the PRHISM tool, along with a scoring system and implementation tool. The principles promote accessibility, transparency, provision of authoritative and evidence-based information and support for consumers’ relationships with health care providers. PRHISM can be used to evaluate the quality of health-related information provided on social media. These principles may also be useful to content creators for developing high-quality health-related social media content and assist consumers in discerning high- and low-quality information.

Development of the Cook-EdTM Matrix to Guide Food and Cooking Skill Selection in Culinary Education Programs That Target Diet Quality and Health

Culinary education programs are generally designed to improve participants’ food and cooking skills, with or without consideration to influencing diet quality or health. No published methods exist to guide food and cooking skills’ content priorities within culinary education programs that target improved diet quality and health. To address this gap, an international team of cooking and nutrition education experts developed the Cooking Education (Cook-Ed^TM) matrix. International food-based dietary guidelines were reviewed to determine common food groups. A six-section matrix was drafted including skill focus points for: (1) Kitchen safety, (2) Food safety, (3) General food skills, (4) Food group specific food skills, (5) General cooking skills, (6) Food group specific cooking skills. A modified e-Delphi method with three consultation rounds was used to reach consensus on the Cook-Ed^TM matrix structure, skill focus points included, and their order. The final Cook-Ed^TM matrix includes 117 skill focus points. The matrix guides program providers in selecting the most suitable skills to consider for their programs to improve dietary and health outcomes, while considering available resources, participant needs, and sustainable nutrition principles. Users can adapt the Cook-Ed^TM matrix to regional food-based dietary guidelines and food cultures.