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competency level of registered dietitian
utritionists (RD/N). With health information increasingly sought on social media, it is imperative to understand the social media competency of health professionals. The social media use, reach, and competency level of a nationwide RD/N sample was assessed utilizing an online survey. The sample (n=500) while mostly female (97%) was representative of RD/Ns compared to the nationwide statistics from the Commission on Dietetic Registration. The sample included RD/Ns from forty-six states with California (n=44), New York (n=42), and Texas (n=34) having the largest proportion of respondents. The majority of RD/Ns engage in social media for personal use (92.4%) and 39.2% engage for professional use. One hundred and twenty-five RD/Ns reported 777 ± 1063 (mean ± SD) social media followers. As compared to non-millennial RD/Ns, millennial RD/Ns engaged significantly more in social media for personal and professional use (+10% and +13.5% respectively, p<0.001) and scored significantly higher for social media competency (p<0.001). Additionally, food and nutrition management and consultant/private practice/industry RD/Ns had significantly higher competency scores than clinical RD/Ns (p=0.015 and p=0.046, respectively). RD/Ns who use social media personally and professionally had a significantly higher competency score than RD/Ns who did not (p<0.001). There were significant associations of Facebook, Twitter, total followers and total average followers with the social media competency score (r=0.265, 0.404, 0.338, & 0.320, respectively) in RD/Ns. Specifically, the social media competency score, was found to explain 16% of the variation in the number of Twitter followers and 10% of the variation in the average number of followers by platform. These data suggest an opportunity to increase RD/Ns’ social media reach (i.e. following) by improving competency level.
Vegetarian diets are typically more sustainable than omnivorous ones due to using less environmental resources in the production of food. An important consideration with plant protein and vegetarian diets, however, is whether this would affect athletic performance. To examine this, 70 male and female endurance athletes were compared for maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), peak torque when doing leg extensions, and body composition. Vegetarians had higher VO2 max, but peak torque was not significantly different by diet. Omnivores had higher total body mass, lean body mass, and there was a trend for peak torque to be higher.
To investigate whether plant-protein can comparably support development of lean body mass and strength development in conjunction with strength training, 61 healthy young males and females began a 12-week training and protein supplementation study. While previous training studies have shown no differences for lean body mass or strength development when consuming either soy (plant) or whey (animal) protein supplements in very large amounts (>48 grams), when consuming around 15-20 grams, whey has contributed to greater lean body mass accrual, although strength increases remain similar. The present study matched supplements by leucine content instead of by total protein amount since leucine has been shown to be a key stimulator of muscle protein synthesis and is more concentrated in animal protein. There were no significant differences between the whey or soy group for lean body mass or strength development, as assessed using isokinetic dynamometry doing leg extensions and flexions.
Abstract
Objective: To assess the attitudes and knowledge of behavioral health technicians (BHTs)
towards opioid overdose management and to assess the effect of online training on opioid
overdose response on BHTs’ attitudes and knowledge, and the confidence to identify and
respond to opioid overdose situations.
Design/Methods: Pre-intervention Opioid Overdose Knowledge Scale (OOKS) and Opioid
Overdose Attitude Scale (OOAS) surveys were administered electronically to five BHTs in
2020. Data obtained were de-identified. Comparisons between responses to pre-and post-surveys questions were carried out using the standardized Wilcoxon signed-rank statistical test(z). This study was conducted in a residential treatment center (RTC) with the institutional review board's approval from Arizona State University. BHTs aged 18 years and above, working at this RTC were included in the study.
Interventions: An online training was provided on opioid overdose response (OOR) and
naloxone administration and on when to refer patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) for
medication-assisted treatment.
Results: Compared to the pre-intervention surveys, the BHTs showed significant improvements
in attitudes on the overall score on the OOAS (mean= 26.4 ± 13.1; 95% CI = 10.1 - 42.7; z =
2.02; p = 0.043) and significant improvement in knowledge on the OOKS (mean= 10.6 ± 6.5;
95% CI = 2.5 – 18.7; z =2.02, p = 0.043).
Conclusions and Relevance: Training BHTs working in an RTC on opioid overdose response is
effective in increasing attitudes and knowledge related to opioid overdose management. opioid
overdose reversal in RTCs.
Keywords: Naloxone, opioid overdose, overdose education, overdose response program