Providing Nutrition Care to Patients with Chronic Disease: An Irish Teaching Hospital Healthcare Professional Study

Table 1

Participant characteristics (n=196).

Category	Subcategory	Frequency	Percentage
Profession	GP/GP trainee	15	7.7
	Doctor/med student	61	31.1
	Nurse/nurse student	106	54.1
	Allied health	14	7.1
Gender	Male	58	29
	Female	142	71
Age	≤24 years	17	8.7
	25-34 years	68	34.7
	35-44 years	66	33.7
	45-54 years	37	18.9
	55+	8	4.1
Current job duration (years)	Mean ±SD = 12.1 ± 9.2	Range <1 year to 38 years
Previous nutrition education (n=186)	Completion of a programme that did not contain any nutrition content	39	21
	Completion of a programme that contained some nutrition content	145	78
	Completion of a programme that was predominantly focused on nutrition	2	1
Previous engagement in continuing education on the topic of nutrition	yes	54	27.6
	no	142	72.4
Need of further	Strongly disagree	17	8.6
nutrition education	Disagree	6	3
	Neither agree nor disagree	20	10.2
	Agree	101	51.3
	Strongly agree	53	26.9

Allied health professionals are comprised of pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and healthcare assistants.