Dietitian-led clinics in primary care: a scoping review protocol

This scoping review aims to examine and map the existing evidence exploring and/or evaluating the implementation, cost and/or effectiveness of dietitian-led clinics in primary care.

Dietitians may be able to offer new models of care within the primary care setting for relevant diagnosed patients, providing cheaper, more efficient and effective service in comparison to the traditional approach of general practitioner support and referral for specialist treatment. There is some evidence for the efficacy of dietetic care in primary care, but there is a lack of information concerning the broader contribution dietitians may make, including cost effectiveness and the range of conditions that dietitians may successfully manage.

Eligible studies will explore dietitian- or nutritionist-led clinics treating patients with any condition, and will be based in primary care or general practice settings in developed countries. Studies may include experimental, quasi-experimental, observational and qualitative studies.

The searches will be limited to the past 10 years to ensure retrieved information will be relevant to today's healthcare setting. There will be no limit for language. The following databases will be searched: MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), AMED (EBSCO), British Nursing Index (ProQuest), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Wiley). Retrieved papers will be screened for inclusion by at least two reviewers. Where a decision is not possible, full text will be retrieved and reviewed. Data will be extracted from the included papers and a narrative summary will accompany the charted results and will describe how the results relate to the review's objective.