Applying Principles of Health Marketing to Private Practice Dietetics

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  • February 27, 2019
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  • Pilewski, Kathryn
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Nutrition
Abstract
  • The prevalence of chronic diseases in America is rising rapidly, requiring increased medical spending to manage these conditions. Treating chronic illnesses comprised seventy-eight percent of total health spending in 2003. In 2005, 133 million Americans were living with at least one chronic disease and this number is expected to increase to 157 million by 2020 (Wu & Green, 2000). The number of people with diabetes in the United States is projected to double in number from twenty-four million to forty-eight million in the next twenty-five years (Bodenheimer, Chen, & Bennett, 2009). There is a direct correlation between chronic disease and healthcare spending, with the average Medicare patient with one chronic condition seeing four physicians a year and patients with five or more chronic conditions seeing fourteen different physicians each year (Vogeli, et al., 2007). Medicare beneficiaries with five or more chronic diagnoses accounted for seventy-six percent of expenditures (Thorpe & Howard, 2006). As healthcare costs rise in the United States, more attention should be given to preventive medicine and lifestyle changes as treatment for chronic diseases and comorbidities. Programs such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Program; Planet Health; and Coordinated Approach to Child Health, which focus on healthy eating and increased physical activity, have the potential to prevent a significant number of children from becoming obese and therefore slowing the increase in diabetes (Cawley, 2007). Lifestyle is crucial for chronic disease prevention and proven to be effective, as evidenced by the Diabetes Prevention Study. This study provided diet and exercise plans, dietitian visits and physical training sessions and showed that lifestyle changes can prevent diabetes (Tuomilehto, et al., 2001). This is evidence that Registered Dietitians (RDs) play an important role in supporting healthy lifestyles and preventing and managing chronic disease. Private practice dietetics offers a unique role, as the RD is able to be more creative with services offered and approaches taken to prevent and manage chronic diseases. This paper discusses the application of principles of health marketing to private practice dietetics with the goal of increasing the reach of nutrition services into the community and the viability of a private practice.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Sommers, Janice
Degree
  • Master of Public Health
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduation year
  • 2011
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  • ec6acc1f-dd30-446a-a923-ede8671f2c72

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