학술논문

Canadian Dietitians' Understandings of, Attitudes Toward, and Engagement in Social Justice and Advocacy
Document Type
Report
Source
Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. March, 2021, Vol. 82 Issue 1, p2, 9 p.
Subject
Canada
Language
English
ISSN
1486-3847
Abstract
Purpose: To explore Canadian dietitians' understandings of, attitudes towards, and engagement in socially just dietetic practice and advocacy. Methods: An online semi-qualitative survey sent to Canadian dietitians. Results: Respondents' understanding of social justice and socially just dietetics practice highlights the unique ways that social injustice and health inequities may be addressed by dietitians. Overall, respondents had a positive attitude toward dietitians' roles in social justice advocacy. Support for dietitians' advocacy roles was highest for food-related concerns, but it declined for concerns with indirect connections to dietitians' food and nutrition expertise (e.g., environment). However, respondents still had uncertainty and divided perspectives concerning if and how social justice fits within dietitians' scope of practice. They also had concerns about barriers that they felt limit dietitians' ability to perform socially just practice. Respondents shared efforts to engage in socially just practice at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural levels. Conclusions: Dietitians could be a critical influence on the determinants of health. This research points strongly to the need for a framework for socially just dietetic practice and advocacy that delineates what social justice looks like across the array of settings in which dietitians practice and within the array of fora that dietitians advocate to support nutrition and health. (DOI: 10.3148/cjdpr-2020-025) Published at dcjournal.ca on 9 September 2020 Objectif. Explorer la comprehension, l'attitude et l'engagement des dietetistes canadiens a l'egard d'une pratique de la dietetique socialement juste et de la defense de la justice sociale. Methodes. Un sondage semi-qualitatif en ligne a ete envoye a des dietetistes canadiens. Resultats. La comprehension qu'ont les repondants de la justice sociale et de la pratique dietetique socialement juste met en lumiere les facons uniques dont les injustices sociales et les inegalites sanitaires peuvent etre abordees par les dietetistes. Dans l'ensemble, les repondants avaient une attitude positive a l'egard du role des dietetistes dans la defense de la justice sociale. L'appui envers le role de defenseurs des dietetistes etait le plus marque pour les preoccupations entourant l'alimentation, mais diminuait relativement aux preoccupations indirectement liees a l'expertise des dietetistes sur les aliments et la nutrition (p. ex. l'environnement). Cependant, les repondants avaient encore des incertitudes et des points de vue divergents quant a savoir si et comment la justice sociale s'inscrit dans le champ de pratique des dietetistes. Ils avaient egalement des preoccupations au sujet des obstacles qui, selon eux, limitent la capacite des dietetistes a adopter une pratique socialement juste. Les repondants ont parle des efforts qu'ils deploient pour adopter des pratiques socialement justes aux plans intrapersonnel, interpersonnel et structurel. Conclusions. Les dietetistes pourraient avoir une influence de premier plan sur les determinants de la sante. Cette recherche demontre clairement la necessite d'elaborer un cadre en matiere de pratique de la dietetique socialement juste et de defense de la justice sociale qui definit en quoi consiste la justice sociale dans l'ensemble des contextes ou pratiquent les dietetistes et dans l'ensemble des forums ou les dietetistes militent en faveur de la nutrition et de la sante. Publie au dcjournal.ca le 9 septembre 2020
INTRODUCTION The role of health professionals in redressing the social and structural inequities that underlay health disparities is increasingly being addressed in the guiding documents and scholarly literatures and by [...]