Analysis of Current Status on a New Public Health Nutrition Service Pattern in China: A Nutrition Outpatient Clinic-Based Study

Abstract

Background. Nutrition outpatient clinics were launched in some hospitals as a new pattern of public health nutrition service in recent years in China. The aim of this study was to review and analysis demographics and consultation spectrum in a single nutrition outpatient clinical center in China. Methods. The retrospective study was performed in the nutrition outpatient clinical center launched by a comprehensive teaching hospital in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province (China). 1014 patients attending the clinic from August 2015 to February 2018 were included. The clinical records including relevant history and baseline data were reviewed and analyzed. Results. Majority of the patients (41.9%) came to our clinical center for nutrition consultation of healthy dietary services, 32.1% for malnutrition, 6.7% for diabetes, 6.3% for neoplasms, 5.3% for digestive system diseases, and the last 7.6% for hypertension, hematologic diseases, thyroid diseases, and so on. More minor patients came for healthy dietary services compared with the population (P<0.001), and, on the contrary, more adult patients came for malnutrition service, especially obesity (P<0.05), while more elderly patients came for consultation services of diabetes, neoplasms, digestive system diseases, and hypertension (P<0.05). Conclusion. Our study provided important data of the new public health nutrition service pattern in China which has never been reported yet. It indicated the huge demand of nutrition outpatient clinic, especially nutrition consultation services of healthy diet and malnutrition; further studies about the validity of the new pattern in improving public health nutrition status are expected in the future.