A text mining to nutritional counseling and instruction provided by registered dietitians

Abstract

Objective The study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of medical records, that specifically focused on nutritional consultations with dietitians within community pharmacies. This was done to gain insights into patient nutrition-related issues, concerns, and responses. That can be used to acquire precise health support information. Methods Text mining was used to conduct a quantitative analysis of nutritional consultation records. These records were documented in a Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan (SOAP) format, provided by eight dietitians, and involved 136 individuals of varying gender identities (male: 32, female: 101, gender non-response: 3). The consultations took place in a city pharmacy over the period from December 2020 to September 2022. Results The frequency analysis revealed that the Subjective-Objective (S/O) items were associated with behaviors such as 'eat', 'exercise', and 'drink', as well as terms associated with health indicators such as 'cholesterol', 'blood pressure', and hemoglobin A1c'. Additionally, S/O items also included words that correlate to specific laboratory values such as 'cholesterol', 'blood pressure', and hemoglobin A1c'. On the other hand, the Assessment-Plan (A/P) items identified words associated with behaviors, such as 'eat', 'diet', and 'exercise’ and with terms that are associated with laboratory values like, 'cholesterol', 'blood glucose', and 'blood pressure'. Furthermore, A/P items included words connected to nutrients, such as 'food', 'vegetables', and 'rehydration'. Through a co-occurrence network analysis, it was observed that certain associations emerged within the S/O terms are blood pressure, 'HDL - TG - LDL', 'quantity - BMI', and 'like - sweet - abstain'. While A/P associations included 'number - test', 'upper limit - potassium', 'oil - type', and 'yogurt - fat'. Conclusion The text mining method enabled visually analyzing keywords. It became comprehensively clear that nutritional consultations by dietitians often include assessing the lifestyle and related risk factors for chronic diseases such as hypertension, lipid disorders, and hyperglycemia as shown by the frequent occurrence of words for instance blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose. It may help to determine priorities for action and may be the starting point for deciding which health issues should be prioritized in the information sharing for collaboration among inter-professions in the future.