ABSTRACT
Background: Due to the increasing global use of nutritional supplements, dietitians play a key role in raising consumer awareness and reducing supplementary side effects. Hence, determination of the states of knowledge, attitudes and practices of this group as to common dietary supplements is important
Methods: A list of all the dietitians employed in the health centers, nutrition clinics and private offices of Shiraz city was prepared; then, all the 36 qualified dietitians were referred to and the information of 25 dietitians was collected. To gather the data, we employed a 4-part questionnaire including demographic data and questions related to their knowledge, attitudes, and practices about prescribed dietary supplements. The knowledge scores of less than 50%, 50-75%, and over 75% were considered as low, medium, and good knowledge, respectively. And the classification of attitudes was determined based on quartile ranking. The data were statistically analyzed through SPSS, version19, using Chi-square and t-test statistical methods
Results: Most of the dietitians had moderate [80%] and low [20%] level of knowledge, while 100% of them had a positive attitude [3[rd] quartile] about the role of dietary supplements in health, side effects, and food interactions. The most common supplements recommended were those for anemia and growth of children. In this study, the dietitians who had higher level of knowledge significantly used nutritional journals to increase their awareness
Conclusion: Considering the key roles of dietitians and their knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the field of supplements and the results of the study, it appears that necessary measures should be taken to enhance the dietitians' knowledge
ABSTRACT
Background: Job satisfaction is an emotional and positive feeling which results from job assessment or experiences. It is always considered as a problem in some organizations. Despite the important role of nutrition therapy in patients care, dietitians' job satisfaction is less taken into account. The aim of the present study was to determine the amount of job satisfaction among dietitians in Fars province, Iran
Methods: In this study, job satisfaction of 95 dietitians was evaluated through demographic and job satisfaction questionnaires. They were sent by e-mail or face-to-face referral for participants. Job satisfaction level was classified into 6 different categories including very satisfied, fairly satisfied, slightly satisfied, slightly dissatisfied, fairly dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using independent sample t-test, oneway ANOVA and Pearson correlation test. Statistical differences were considered significant at P<0.05
Results: The results showed that 72.6% of the participants were satisfied with their job condition but 27.4% were dissatisfied. The mean score of job satisfaction of dietitians was 57% +/- 10.54 [from the maximum score of 100], indicating the participants 'slight satisfaction. Moreover, the highest and lowest scores were related to the nature of work and salary, respectively
Conclusion: Since the level of job satisfaction affects other institutional variables such as efficiency, motivation, performance, absenteeism or burning out, it is suggested that authorities of Health Ministry provide a condition in which job satisfaction is increased by applying appropriate techniques