Self-reported nutritional competence and -practice among health care workers at nursing homes in two Norwegian municipalities : a cross-sectional study

Background: Malnutrition is common in elderly. Possible causes are multimorbidity and natural changes from ageing. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nutritional competence and nutritional practice among health care workers in nursing homes in two municipalities. Method: Health care workers from ten nursing homes received an electronic questionnaire. The questionnaire included 49 items regarding practice of documentation, self-reported nutritional competence, and knowledge about anthropometric measures and body mass index. In addition, familiarity of key documents and guidelines about nutrition were assessed. The data was analyzed with frequencies, Chi-square, and regression analyses. Results: Out of 542 invited participants, 185 (34 %) responded to the survey, of which 37 % were registered nurses. The majority reported good nutritional competence. A small proportion were familiar with relevant documents about nutrition; 25 % knew the “Norwegian dietary guidelines” and 37 % were familiar with the “Dietary handbook”. The health care workers reported to have a good nutritional practice, especially of documenting food intake. The practice of measuring weight and height both on admission and regularly was good, but knowledge and practice regarding body mass index were insufficient. The staff wished for increased knowledge about nutrition, especially in dementia and patients with chronical diseases. Conclusion: Self-perceived nutritional competence and -practice were relatively good, but there is room for improvement especially in regarding and familiarity with relevant documents and use of body mass index. The health care workers wanted more knowledge about nutrition

The diversity of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus type 1 and 2 in Denmark

Session - Viral Heterogeneity and EvolutionBoth Type 1 and Type 2 PRRS viruses are circulating among Danish pigs. The first appearance of Type 1 PRRSV in Denmark was in 1992 whereas the Type 2 PRRSV was introduced in 1996 after the use of a live attenuated vaccine that reverted to virulence. Since then, vaccination to control the disease for both PRRSV genotypes has been widely used in Denmark and it is therefore highly relevant to monitor the diversity of currently circulating PRRSV strains. Only subtype 1 of the Type 1 PRRSV strains and vaccine-like Type 2 PRRSV strains were previously detected in Denmark, however, only few Danish PRRSV strains were sequenced. Denmark exports more than 50.000 living pigs each month. A portion of these pigs inevitably harbor PRRSV. Thus, the diversity of PRRSV in Denmark is of interest to other countries besides Denmark. The main objective of the present study was to close the gap in knowledge on the genetic diversity of currently circulating PRRSV stains in Danish pigs by sequencing ORF5 and ORF7 of approximately 41 Type 1 and 50 Type 2 strains isolated between 2003 and 2013. Furthermore, full genome analysis was performed on nine Type 1 and nine Type 2 selected strains. The preliminary assessment of the results showed that the Type 1 strains all belonged to subtype 1. Based on the ORF5 sequences, the Danish Type 1 viruses clustered into two groups. These two groups shared 84 % to 92 % and 94 % to 99 % nucleotide identity to the Lelystad virus, respectively. The sequenced Type 2 viruses showed a significant higher level of identity in that the ORF5 sequences were 94 - >99 % identical at the nucleotide level. Most of the Type 2 viruses, shared high level of identity to the VR2332 vaccine strain (Ingelvac MLV), but a few more diverse isolates were also identified, including strains with interesting deletions in NSP2 and other genes. The full genome sequences of Danish strains showed an overall nucleotide identity of 88-98 % (Type 1) and 94 % to >99 % (Type 2). The impact of these results will be discussed.postprin