Aging population challenge for NZ dietitians

Aging population challenge for NZ dietitians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 August 2007

With just 438 registered dietitians currently serving the New Zealand population and 34 students trained each year, expertise and resources are stretched to tackle the growing rate of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and the fact that we are living longer.

Life expectancy is increasing with those aged 65 and over the fastest growing segment of the population. The majority live in their own homes and, with central government encouraging Aging in Place, the challenge is to keep these people well, living in their own homes and with a good quality of life. There is, however, increasing concern that the incidence of under-nutrition and malnutrition among our older people is reaching record levels.

With the aging of the Australian and New Zealand population under-nutrition is becoming an important social and medical problem particularly in housebound elderly, says Dr Peter Lipski, senior lecturer in geriatric medicine at Newcastle University and staff specialist in geriatric medicine at Gosford Hospital. Up to one-third of community living elderly have some form of under-nutrition.

Dr Lipski will deliver the plenary address on Nutrition Care to the Housebound Elderly to this year's New Zealand Dietetic Association Conference to be held in Christchurch on September 3-5. The three-day conference begins with a symposium that will focus on nutrition and dietetics for older people and an opening address by Dr Sally Keeling, a senior lecturer in the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences which will reveal Kiwi food habits in later life.

Blenheim GP Dr Nadim Khan's research on drinking patterns among Christchurch community-dwelling people aged 65 and over also led to findings of at-risk patterns that point to future damage to physical or mental health.

Dietitians undertaking research in nutrition for older people will also speak at the Conference, including Jennifer Bowden on Understanding barriers to healthy eating in older single-living New Zealand men, Dr Clare Hocking on The meaning of preparing and sharing food for older New Zealand women, and Christchurch dietitian Sally Watson on Nutrition risk screening in community living older people.

'What happens in the kitchen in a hospital environment is also important,' says Christchurch dietitian Julian Jensen. 'Food service personnel are the gatekeepers to nutrition, but often don't receive enough support for their work. My colleague Pip Duncan and I are currently looking at developing unit standards for people working in residential care catering and revising our book Professional Foodservice to support these unit standards in residential care facilities.'

This year's NZDA conference is not all about older people. Head of Paediatrics at the Academic Hospital in Brussels, Professor Yvan Vandenplas will speak about food allergy, in particular a problem that is familiar to parents everywhere – gastro-oesophageal reflux in newborn babies.

The topic of eating disorders and sports nutrition among female athletes is also on the programme, as are presentations on children's health, the new field of nutrigenomics (targeted dietary and lifestyle recommendations for individuals or populations, based on genetics), food standards and food in industry, and even a 20-minute presentation on sports nutrition for firefighters.

'Nutrition may be a relatively young science but is advancing to rapidly become an integral component in the treatment of many medical conditions,' says NZDA President, Sandy Clemett.

Dietitians work in an incredibly wide range of roles, including the setting of food standards (with the Food Safety Authority and Ministry of Health), within industry (working with food companies to modify salt content, reduce fat content, enhance calcium content etc), in the public health sector, in primary health working alongside GPs, as clinical dietitians, or in private practice, food service management, teaching and research.

'Dietitians are at the forefront of future health planning and have a hugely important role in disseminating evidence-based information,' says Sandy Clemett. 'A career in dietetics is not taken lightly. Students undertaking a three-year undergraduate degree at the University of Otago will have achieved excellent results in science at school. Graduates can then apply for a position in the postgraduate training programme – an 18 months distance learning programme that is limited to 34 places each year - after which application is made to the Dietitians Board for registration under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act 2003.'

Christchurch dietitian Julian Jensen will be presenting this year's public Constance Shearer Lecture with 'A case for the role of dietetic support workers in New Zealand' - which may pave the way towards a solution to the challenge of resourcing the nutritional and dietetic needs of New Zealanders today and in the future.

ENDS

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