A qualitative research study comparing nutrition advice communicated by registered Dietitian and non-Registered Dietitian bloggers

ABSTRACT

Background: Regardless of credentials or expertise, anyone can disseminate nutrition information online, putting the public at risk of receiving unreliable and harmful advice. Registered Dietitians (RD) are nutrition professionals; however, it is unknown how nutrition information or advice online differs between RDs and non-RDs. The objective of this study was to compare nutrition advice communicated on blogs by RD and non-RD bloggers.

Methods: A blog-ranking platform, based on search and social media metrics, was used to identify the top-ranked, English-language nutrition blogs written by RDs (n = 10) and non-RDs (n = 10) available through public domain. From each blog, the 20 most recent nutrition-related posts were selected, resulting in a final sample size of 400 blog posts (RD = 200 blog posts; non-RD = 200 blog posts) for qualitative document analysis.

Results: Although two themes were found for both RD and non-RD blogs: nutrition recommendations and service promotion/sponsorship, several themes were unique to RD or non-RD blogs. For example, RD blogs were primarily lifestyle blogs that promoted healthy lifestyles. Whereas, non-RD blogs focused on challenging conventional medicine while promoting alternative medicine, establishing their credibility, and had conflicting messages.

Conclusions: The internet is an effective tool for communicating nutrition information to a wide audience. RD bloggers can optimize their impact by providing evidence-based nutrition education, addressing current health trends, and making advice achievable for low resource populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• blogs
• nutritionists
• qualitative research
• internet

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Taylor Chan

Ms. Taylor Chan is a Registered Dietitian (RD). She completed her dietetic internship at Bradley University and now works with food service and nutrition education for independent schools.

Teresa Drake

Dr. Teresa Drake is a RD and certified health education specialist (CHES). She has been an Assistant Professor at Bradley University since 2014 and is the coordinator for the Public Health Education program.

Rachel L. Vollmer

Dr. Rachel Vollmer is a RD. She has been an Assistant Professor at Bradley University since 2016 and the coordinator for the Family & Consumer Sciences program. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at Illinois State University.