Novel digital food photos resource enhances knowledge of nutrition and dietetics students

A robust knowledge of food composition, the Australian food supply and cooking methods is integral to dietetics practice. Students learn these concepts across a variety of subjects, however a new dietetics subject in 2009 and a faculty based learning and teaching grant provided a timely opportunity to develop innovative new digital resources for students to enhance their food composition knowledge. One-hundred and sixty high quality digital food photographs were developed and nutrient composition data were added, before making the resource accessible to students via their eLearning sites. The primary aim of this study was to assess the views and experiences of first and fourth year students regarding the usefulness and application of the digital food photos resource in developing their food composition knowledge. The secondary aim was to identify and explore other potential applications of the resource and recommendations for future upgrades. Forty students completed an online survey and six took part in semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were facilitated by the same two researchers, before being digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Preliminary findings highlighted that students found the resource to be an interactive and valuable contributor to their knowledge, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Like I sat on it for hours going through it (S1). All of the fourth year respondents said they would use the resource again, as did 83% of the first year students. A revised edition is currently being developed with 180 additional photographs and student feedback about further nutrients, symbols used and future commercial applications

The drivers of antibiotic use and misuse: the development and investigation of a theory driven community measure

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health concern, with extensive associated health and economic implications. Actions to slow and contain the development of resistance are imperative. Despite the fact that overuse and misuse of antibiotics are highlighted as major contributing factors to this resistance, no sufficiently validated measures aiming to investigate the drivers behind consumer behaviour amongst the general population are available. The objective of this study was to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of an original, novel and multiple-item questionnaire, informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, to measure factors contributing to self-reported antibiotic use within the community. METHOD: A three-phase process was employed, including literature review and item generation; expert panel review; and pre-test. Investigation of the questionnaire was subsequently conducted through a cross-sectional, anonymous survey. Orthogonal principal analysis with varimax rotation, cronbach alpha and linear mixed-effects modelling analyses were conducted. A 60 item questionnaire was produced encompassing demographics, social desirability, three constructs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour including: attitudes and beliefs; subjective norm; perceived behavioural control; behaviour; and a covariate - knowledge. RESULTS: Three hundred seventy-three participants completed the survey. Eighty participants (21%) were excluded due to social desirability concerns, with data from the remaining 293 participants analysed. Results showed modest but acceptable levels of internal reliability, with high inter-item correlations within each construct. All four variables and the outcome variable of antibiotic use behaviour comprised four items with the exception of social norms, for which there were two items, producing a final 18 item questionnaire. Perceived behavioural control, social norms, the interaction between attitudes and beliefs and knowledge, and the presence of a healthcare worker in the family were all significant predictors of antibiotic use behaviour. All other predictors tested produced a nonsignificant relationship with the outcome variable of self-reported antibiotic use. CONCLUSION: This study successfully developed and validated a novel tool which assesses factors influencing community antibiotic use and misuse. The questionnaire can be used to guide appropriate intervention strategies to reduce antibiotic misuse in the general population. Future research is required to assess the extent to which this tool can guide community-based intervention strategies

How to reduce processing times for site-specific assessments from 29 to 5 days using a common-sense approach: it does not have to be that hard

Researchers have reported limitations with research governance processes across Australia. This study aimed to streamline research governance processes across a local health district. Four basic principles were applied to remove non-value-adding and non-risk-mitigating processes. Average processing times were reduced from 29 to 5 days and end-user satisfaction was improved, all within the same staffing levels

If a picture tells a thousand words, how useful are they as a teaching tool? Evaluating a digital food photo resource within a first year tertiary nutrition subject

Abstract of poster presented at Dietitians Association of Australia 16th International Congress of Dietetics, 5-8 September 2012, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia

If a picture tells a thousand words, how useful are they as a teaching tool? Evaluating a digital food photo resource within a first year tertiary nutrition subject

Abstract of poster presented at Dietitians Association of Australia 16th International Congress of Dietetics, 5-8 September 2012, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia