Many ODs spend less than 2 minutes on dietary counseling for patients with diabetes
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Key takeaways:
- Nearly two-thirds of ODs reported providing fewer than 20% of their diabetic patients nutrition or dietary counseling.
- One-fifth do not provide any counseling and 43.6% provide less than 2 minutes of counseling.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Although more than 70% of surveyed optometrists felt they bore some responsibility to provide nutrition counseling to patients with diabetes, most spent less than 2 minutes doing so, according to research.
“I hope the results encourage practicing optometrists to provide their diabetic patients with proper nutrition counseling through a dietitian referral or expanding their own nutrition knowledge,” Reena Lepine, OD, FAAO, associate professor at Southern College of Optometry (SCO), told Healio.
Lepine and Mary Hoang, OD, FAAO, an assistant professor at SCO, conducted a voluntary survey of 39 SCO faculty members, who were asked about nutrition and dietary counseling for patients with diabetes to determine whether faculty would benefit from training in this area. The mean age of respondents was 45.4 years and most were women (66.7%). The mean practice timeframe was 18.5 years, and 23.1% had nutrition counseling training.
In a poster presented at Optometry’s Meeting, Lepine said that 64.1% of respondents reported providing fewer than 20% of their patients nutrition or dietary counseling, and 43.6% reported spending less than 2 minutes on counseling. About one-fifth (20.5%) reported they do not provide any nutritional counseling.
Despite this, 82.1% felt that nutrition or dietary counseling is a high priority for patients with diabetes, and 84.6% said optometrists should utilize dietitians more for these patients.
When asked who bears the responsibility of nutrition and dietary counseling, 71.8% agreed that optometrists are responsible, 66.7% agreed that physicians are responsible and 89.7% agreed that dietitians are responsible.
“I was surprised that 71.8% of the respondents believed that optometrists bore some nutrition counseling responsibility, but the majority spent under 2 minutes providing counseling to their diabetic patients,” Lepine said.
Barriers to providing counseling included inadequate materials, lack of time, lack of training, lack of confidence in counseling abilities, lack of patient compliance and lack of adequate reimbursement.
Participants rated a freestanding seminar or workshop as the most effective training strategy and comprehensive nutrition emails as the least effective.
The researchers found no significant association between years of practice and opinions on counseling or perceived barriers to counseling, although female respondents were more likely to agree that counseling is a high priority (P = .01), that dietitians should be utilized more frequently (P = .04) and that optometrists are responsible for some nutrition counseling (P = .04).
“I think a great follow-up for this study would be to have a nutrition seminar and give out the survey again to see if nutrition counseling percentages change in how many diabetic patients are receiving nutrition counseling,” Lepine said her presentation.
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Lepine R, et al. Determining nutrition counseling needs for diabetic patients from the Southern College of Optometry facility. Presented at: Optometry’s Meeting; June 19-22, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee.
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