A study of the roles and duties of public health dietitian in Taiwan

This study was conducted to understand the roles, duties, and current working status of public health nutritionists in Taiwan. First, the Delphi technique was used to collect experts' opinions on the roles and duties of public heath nutritionists in county bureaus of health and local health stations. Self-administered questionnaires were then mailed to all the public health nutritionists of 26 county bureaus of health (n = 32), and 369 local health stations (n = 13). The response rates were 71.9% (n = 23) and 76.9% (n = 10), respectively. The results showed that the roles and duties recognized by public health nutritionists in both county bureaus of health and local heath stations somewhat differed from the experts' viewpoints. Much of the routine work was not considered necessary for public health nutritionists by experts, especially work in food sanitation management and supervision of weight control businesses. On the other hand, less than 50% of the county bureau of health nutritionists fulfilled the work of community nutrition, nutritional care, and nutrition education and conducting research which were evaluated as important by the experts. Results suggest that current job assignments of public health nutritionists should be reevaluated, and that the severe shortage of public health nutritionists in local health stations should be resolved through law to enable the implementation of the work of public health nutrition.