Introduction:

The professional figure of reference in dietary treatment at the hospital setting is the Dietitian-Nutritionist (DN). Their public interest matches with scientific data on their performance and clinical efficiency. The objective is to describe their presence in hospitals, public and private, in Andalusia and to analyze to what extent met the criteria of the positioning statement of the Dieticians-Nutritionists Spanish Association (AEDN) of 2009 on the incorporation of the DN in the national health system.

Material and Methods:

Public and private hospitals were selected from the Register of Centers, Establishments and Health Care Services of the Counseling of Health and Social Welfare. Hospitals were contacted by telephone and telematics via and were asked for: services that include, number of total DN, units with DN and amount and number of beds. Data were compared with the proposal to the Senate of the AEDN-2009.

Results:

It were included 105 hospitals of which 57 were public and 48 private; 51 (48.6%) answered the questions, public: 31 (54.4%); and private: 20 (41.7%). There were 35 DN, 31 (88.6%) in public and 4 (11.4%) in private hospitals. The level of compliance with the studied criteria in Andalusia is 0%, except for Granada (20%) and Malaga (12.5%) private hospitals.

Conclusions:

DN representation in public and private hospitals in Andalusia does not meet the proposal submitted to the Spanish Senate in 2009 by the AEDN. More studies are needed to establish the situation in the different regions and to describe the professional condition of DN in hospitals.

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