Brazilian dieticians: professional and demographic profiles

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze the difference in Brazilian dieticians' work activities in view of personal, demographic and work variables. METHODS: This study takes a cross-sectional, exploratory approach with random sample per grouping, and with an accuracy of 0.05 and confidence interval of 95.0%. The final sample was of 587 respondents among a total of 25,793 dieticians. Descriptive (mean, median, standard deviation) and variance (Kruskal Wallis, Spearman index and Chi-square) analysis were performed. RESULTS: 46.9% of the respondents lived in Southeast region of Brazil; 96.9% were women; 61.2% had a partner, and the average age was 34.8 years; 51.4% graduated from public universities, 63.9% accomplished some kind of post-graduation course; 55.9% worked in private institutions and 39.7% had worked in their current job for at least two years; 30.7% performed their activities in more than one area and 24.4% worked in food and nutrition units. Variance analysis indicated that there was significant difference in the stratified variables type of institution in which the dieticians graduated from, " year of graduation" , " type of organization" in which they work and " time working" stratified by geographic region. CONCLUSION: Typical dieticians are women, young, have a partner, live in the Brazilian Southeast, finished a post-graduate course, perform their activities in more than one area or in food and nutrition units and in private companies.