Highlights:
- Nearly two-thirds of ODs reported providing nutrition or dietary counseling to fewer than 20% of their diabetic patients..
- One in five did not offer any counselling at all, and 43.6% offered less than two minutes of counselling..
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — More than 70 percent of optometrists surveyed felt they had a responsibility to provide nutritional advice to their diabetic patients, but most spent less than two minutes doing so, a study found.
“We hope that our results will encourage ophthalmologists to provide appropriate nutrition counseling to their diabetic patients through referrals to dietitians or by expanding their own nutrition knowledge.” Lina Repin, O.D., F.A.A.O., An associate professor at the Southern College of Optometry (SCO) told Healio:
With Lepine Mary Huang, OD, FAAO, An assistant professor at SCO administered a self-administered survey to 39 SCO faculty members, asking them questions about nutrition and dietary counseling for diabetic patients to determine whether faculty would benefit from training in this area. The mean age of respondents was 45.4 years, and most were female (66.7%). The mean length of practice was 18.5 years, and 23.1% had received training in nutrition counseling.
In a poster presented at the Academy of Optometry, Repin said 64.1% of respondents provided nutrition or dietary counseling to less than 20% of their patients, and 43.6% spent less than two minutes on counseling. Nearly one-fifth (20.5%) said they did not provide any nutritional counseling at all.
Despite this, 82.1% felt that nutritional or dietary counselling should be a priority for patients with diabetes, and 84.6% said optometrists should make more use of dieticians for their diabetic patients.
When asked who is responsible for nutrition and dietary counseling, 71.8% answered that the optometrist is responsible, 66.7% answered that the physician is responsible, and 89.7% answered that the dietician is responsible.
“We were surprised to find that while 71.8% of respondents believe optometrists are responsible for some nutrition counseling, the majority spend less than two minutes counseling patients with diabetes,” Lepin said.
Barriers to providing counseling include inadequate materials, lack of time, lack of training, lack of confidence in counseling abilities, lack of patient adherence, and lack of appropriate reimbursement.
Participants rated a stand-alone seminar or workshop as the most effective training strategy and a comprehensive nutrition email as the least effective.
The researchers found no significant associations between opinions about or barriers to counseling and years in practice, but female respondents were more likely to agree that counseling was a priority (P = .01), and dietitians should be used more frequently (P = .04), and optometrists are responsible for some of the nutritional counseling (P = .04).
“I think a great follow-up to this study would be to hold nutrition seminars and re-administer the survey to see if the rates of nutrition counseling change depending on how many of your diabetic patients are receiving nutrition counseling,” Lepin said during the presentation..
Sources/Disclosures
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Lepine R et al., “Identifying the Nutrition Counseling Needs of Diabetic Patients at the Southern College of Optometry Facility,” presented at: Optometry’s Meeting, June 19-22, 2024, Nashville, TN.
Disclosure: Lepine did not report any relevant financial disclosures.
