Breastfeeding Registry Study Finds Infant Nutrition Diagnoses Improve with Care from RDN

Studies continue to show that medical nutrition therapy (MNT) delivered by registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) improve public health outcomes; however, the impact of RDNs' on breastfeeding outcomes remains underexplored.

The recently released Breastfeeding Registry Study describes Nutrition the Care Process (NCP) documentation patterns, evaluates documentation quality and reports nutrition diagnosis improvement, goal attainment and outcomes predictors associated with breastfeeding dyads.

The study found that higher-quality documentation and more RDN visits were associated with improvements in breastfeeding infants’ nutrition diagnoses. Consensus on which outcomes should always be recorded in breastfeeding nutrition care will further facilitate pooling and comparability of emerging evidence.

This prospective, observational study included documentation from 92 breastfeeding infants using the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Health Informatics Infrastructure. Researchers assessed breastfeeding duration, frequencies of documented NCP terminology, impactful care plans, and nutrition diagnosis improvement were assessed.

• Documentation quality was evaluated using the NCP Quality Evaluation and Standardization Tool (NCP-QUEST). In this study duration of any breastfeeding averaged 34.2 days (n = 10), although documentation of this indicator was poor.
• The most frequent etiology was breastfeeding difficulty (18%).
• At reassessment, 68% of diagnoses improved, with the highest rates for breastfeeding difficulty (55%), predicted breastfeeding difficulty (83%), inadequate vitamin D intake (83%), and underweight (83%).
• Greater NCPQUEST score and frequency of RDN visits predicted diagnosis improvement.

The Breastfeeding Registry Study was funded by: Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group (PNPG) and Women's Health Dietetic Practice Group (WH), with support from the Academy Foundation.