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. 2023 May 3:11:1151648.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1151648. eCollection 2023.

Perspectives and practices of dietitians with regards to social/mass media use during the transitions from face-to-face to telenutrition in the time of COVID-19: A cross-sectional survey in 10 Arab countries

Khlood Bookari  1   2 , Jamila Arrish  2 , Majid M Alkhalaf  2 , Mudi H Alharbi  1 , Sara Zaher  1   2 , Hawazin M Alotaibi  3 , Reema Tayyem  4 , Narmeen Al-Awwad  5 , Radwan Qasrawi  6   7 , Sabika Allehdan  8 , Haleama Al Sabbah  9 , Sana AlMajed  10 , Eiman Al Hinai  11 , Iman Kamel  12 , Jalila El Ati  13 , Ziad Harb  14 ; Arabic Dietitians practices (ADP) survey Group; Maha Hoteit  15
Affiliations

Perspectives and practices of dietitians with regards to social/mass media use during the transitions from face-to-face to telenutrition in the time of COVID-19: A cross-sectional survey in 10 Arab countries

Khlood Bookari et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most healthcare professionals switched from face-to-face clinical encounters to telehealth. This study sought to investigate the dietitians' perceptions and practices toward the use of social/mass media platforms amid the transition from face-to-face to telenutrition in the time of COVID-19. This cross-sectional study involving a convenient sample of 2,542 dietitians (mean age = 31.7 ± 9.5; females: 88.2%) was launched in 10 Arab countries between November 2020 and January 2021. Data were collected using an online self-administrated questionnaire. Study findings showed that dietitians' reliance on telenutrition increased by 11% during the pandemic, p = 0.001. Furthermore, 63.0% of them reported adopting telenutrition to cover consultation activities. Instagram was the platform that was most frequently used by 51.7% of dietitians. Dietitians shouldered new difficulties in dispelling nutrition myths during the pandemic (58.2% reported doing so vs. 51.4% pre-pandemic, p < 0.001). Compared to the pre-pandemic period, more dietitians perceived the importance of adopting tele nutrition's clinical and non-clinical services (86.9% vs. 68.0%, p = 0.001), with 76.6% being confident in this practice. In addition, 90.0% of the participants received no support from their work facilities for social media usage. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the majority of dietitians (80.0%) observed a rise in public interest in nutrition-related topics, particularly those pertaining to healthy eating habits (p = 0.001), healthy recipes (p = 0.001), nutrition and immunity (p = 0.001), and medical nutrition therapies (p = 0.012). Time constraint was the most prevalent barrier to offering telenutrition for nutrition care (32.1%), whereas leveraging a quick and easy information exchange was the most rewarding benefit for 69.3% of the dietitians. In conclusion, to ensure a consistent provision of nutrition care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, dietitians working in Arab countries adopted alternative telenutrition approaches through social/mass media.

Keywords: Arab countries; COVID-19; barriers; benefits; dietitians; mass media; social media; telenutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author disclaim that the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represents the views, decisions or policies of Saudi FDA or other institutions with which the authors are affiliated.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The proportion of dietitians reporting not receiving support from their work facilities to ease the use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The hot nutrition topics that were more asked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) The benefits of using social media/mass media platforms to provide telenutrition. (B) The barriers of using social media/mass media platforms to provide telenutrition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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