Thesis: The Effect of Nutrition Counseling on Long-term Outcomes

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I'm a registered dietitian working on completing my Masters in

Nutrition and Dietetics from Saint Louis University. I am currently

in the process of defining the research question for my thesis and

deciding on the appropriate methods to answer that question. I'd like

to focus my thesis on the effect of nutrition education/counseling

sessions on long-term outcomes in patients following Roux-en-Y gastric

bypass surgery. Thus, my intention is to use the patients of St.

ius Newstart, a clinic geared towards performing bariatric

surgeries in the St. Louis area, as my sample. The registered

dietitians of St. ius Newstart teach nutrition lifestyle classes

four times a month. Patients are strongly encouraged to attend these

classes one week, one month, 3 months, 6 months and then annually

following bariatric surgery. My preliminary plan is to survey the

patients who attend these classes and those who don't and determine

whether there is a difference in the outcomes between these two groups.

I have few questions regarding the sample and methods:

1. Should my sample include patients from only one clinic or should I

increase the sample size by including other clinics even though the

nutrition education content and procedure will differ?

2. What should I include in the survey? Physical activity, eating

patterns, diet recall, complications, deficiencies, weight at specific

intervals following surgery, nutrition knowledge related to

appropriate diet following surgery?

3. Should I conduct a medical chart review along with the survey?

I'd also greatly welcome and appreciate any advice related to

improving my thesis!

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

Pol, RD

Graduate Assistant

Dept. of Nutrition and Dietetics

Saint Louis University

[Guest guest]

Hi !

I love your thesis idea! I too am pursuing a masters except mine is in social work. What I found from my research class this past spring was sometimes the smaller studies can prove a lot. It would be great to compare and contrast with another clinic, but my advice is to stick to the one clinic and do it well. Are you planning on doing a qualitative or quantitative study?

"What should I include in the survey? Physical activity, eating patterns, diet recall, complications, deficiencies, weight at specific intervals following surgery, nutrition knowledge related to appropriate diet following surgery?" Are you surveying patients prior to surgery or after? It would be good to get a baseline for these. Do you plan to survey them at each post-op class? Do the RD's there do pre-operative education? Do they have a Tanita? That would be great to tell fat mass and muscle mass as opposed to weight. How many kinds of surgeries do they do? Do they just do RNY or do they offer AGB and DS as well?

I absolutely love research and would love to help you if you would like. Please contact me if you would like some input.

Lovisa, RD, CD

Bariatric Dietitian

Memorial Weight Loss & Bariatric Surgery Center

office: 574-647-2953

pager: 574-472-2644