Need for physician referral of low-income, chronic disease patients to community nutrition education programs.

摘要

To ascertain levels of dietary counselling and propensity of primary care physicians toward referral of older low-income, chronic disease patients to community nutrition programmes and the desire of such patients for dietary counselling, two surveyswere conducted. An 18-item mail-out questionnaire was administered with 209 primary care physicians and another 13-item questionnaire was administered in interviews with 57 Food Stamp Nutrition Education Programme (FSNEP) participants. Physicians (81%)reported providing dietary counselling, but limited referral of chronic disease patients to registered dietitians or community nutrition education programmes. FSNEP participants indicated dissatisfaction with their physician's nutrition advice and a desire for more dietary guidance to manage chronic diseases.