Dietitians' practices and attitudes regarding the Code of Ethics for the Profession of Dietetics

Three hundred forty-one dietetics practitioners responded (a 34% response rate) to a 103-item questionnaire that included four subscales. This article focuses on one subscale: assessment of the extent to which dietitians reportedly adhere to the profession's code of ethics as it applies to their own practices. The validity of the survey instrument was confirmed by a panel of experts, and the overall internal consistency reliability for the instrument was .82 using Cronbachs' alpha. The internal consistency reliability for the code of ethics subscale was .84 (items 1 through 16) and .88 (items 17 through 20). Respondents to the questionnaire were typically college-educated, married, white women over 40 years of age who practiced as consultant or clinical dietitians. Almost one fourth of the respondents fell into the 60 years and older age group. More than 75% of the respondents reported that they either "always" practiced specific components from the code of ethics or "strongly agreed" with code statements. No statistically significant differences were found among selected personal and professional characteristics and responses to the subscale items. These findings indicate that the dietitians in the sample reportedly adhere to and agree with the Code of Ethics for the Profession of Dietetics.