Evaluating the Public Relationships of Registered Dietitians with Government, Food Industry, and Universities...

Purpose: The nutritional quality of the food supply is influenced by actions from the government, the food industry, and universities. Considering the potential of registered dietitians (RDs) to transfer nutrition knowledge, this study aimed to assess the positivity of the relationships between RDs and these actors to improve knowledge transfer initiatives for the benefit of food nutritional quality.Methods: Using a descriptive and correlation research design, 68 RDs, members of the Ordre des diététistes-nutritionnistes du Québec (dietitians in the Province of Québec, Canada), evaluated their relationships with the government, the food industry, and universities in a web-based survey.Results: Overall, RDs rated their relationships with universities more positively than with government or industry, which were similarly rated (p < 0.001). More specifically, RDs working in clinical nutrition rated all dimensions of their relationships with the actors in general less favourably than RDs in other sectors (p < 0.05).Conclusions: To support the successful transfer of knowledge regarding the nutritional quality of foods, these findings suggest that RDs should be encouraged to attempt to develop more positive relationships with government and industry, while maintaining their positive relationships with universities. Future research could further examine the clinical RD subgroup as well as the reasons for these results by conducting in-depth interviews or group discussions.