ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS OF DIETETICS PROFESSIONALS TOWARD COST-BENEFITAND COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSES

Objective To compare the attitudes and opinions of dietitians and diet ary managers in regard to cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effecti veness analysis (CEA). Design A questionnaire was sent, nationwide to a sample of 1,074 dietitians and 454 dietary managers. Subjects/sample s The dietitians were randomly selected from three dietetic practice g roups of The American Dietetic Association that have practitioners wit h administrative responsibilities in health care: Clinical Nutrition M anagement, Consultant Dietitians in Health Care Facilities, and Manage ment in Healthcare Systems. The random sample of dietary managers was drawn from the membership list of the Dietary Managers Association. Ma in outcome measures We hypothesized that there would be a difference b etween the dietitians and dietary managers in their attitudes about, a nd experiences in conducting CBA and CEA. Statistical analyses Data an alysis incorporated frequencies, means, and standard deviations to des cribe the respondents. Pearson's pairwise correlations and analysis of variance examined the significance of the relationships among the var iables of the study. Scheffe's test was conducted to identify which va riables related closely to each other. Results Seven hundred twenty-tw o usable questionnaires were returned, which gave an overall response rate of 47%. Although both professional groups had experience with red ucing costs at their jobs, they did not think it important to conduct CBA and CEA. Neither group could distinguish between CBA and CEA. Diet itians, who were more positive toward using CBA and CEA, saw them as i mportant techniques that could justify the value of dietetics services . Dietitians were also more likely than the dietary managers to use th e techniques in the future. Dietitians were beginning to explore the t echniques, but they did not feel that good sources of information were available for conducting CBA and CEA studies. Applications/conclusion s Our findings suggest a strong need to educate dietitians and dietary managers in the techniques and proper use of CBA and CEA in practice settings. Dietitians need to be guided to appropriate teaching materia ls and educational programs, and dietary managers first have to be edu cated about the importance and the benefits of using the techniques.