Characteristics
Age (years)	45 ± 12*
	n	%
Gender
Females	790	75
Area of Residence
Northern Italy	527	50
Centre Italy	274	26
Southern Italy	252	24
University degree status
Dietitians	252	24
University degree status
Biologist	374	33
Medical Doctors	353	43
Employment setting
Private ambulatory care	590	56
Hospitals	337	32
Public nutrition services	126	12
Years of involvement in nutrition practice
<10 years	442	42
10-20 years	285	27
> 20 years	326	31
*mean ± SD, C.I. 95% 44.28-45.72 Table 1: Sample demographic characteristics (n=1053)

Nutrition Education practice %
Population targets		Area of practice		Interventions
children & adolescents	38	public sanitary services	34	preventive	42
adults	33	schools	28	therapeutic	28
elderly	16	private structures	38	both	30
pregnant women	11
all groups	2
Topics %
Basics of Human Nutrition	38	Nutrition and Health dietary recommendations for:	44	Food Safety and Hygiene	13	Other	5
food groups	13	obesity	16	foodborne diseases	18
food pyramid	13	hypertension	12	food preservation	20
cooking methods	9	dyslipidemias	13	food hygiene	20
nutrients	12	diabetes	13	food labelling	39
energy requirements	12	cardiovascular diseases	8	other	3
balanced diet	14	renal failure	3
portion size	10	metabolic syndrome	13
dietary guidelines	16	gastrointestinal pathologies	6
other	1	cancer	6
		food allergies	8
		other	2
Table 2: Nutrition Education practice and topics

Nutrition Education intervention methodology %
Methodology		Information material used		Intervention frequency
individual interview	43	slides and videos	30	weekly	13
lessons in class	18	topic specific pamphlets	55	fortnightly	15
group discussion with experts	10	web sites	10	monthly	45
self-help groups	22	other	5	only once	20
other	7			other	7
Result indicators %
Use of result indicators		Kind of result indicators used		Intervention outcomes
yes	57	self-reported questionnaires	15	increased nutrition knowledge	27
no	38	interviews	12	behaviour change	3
sometimes	5	anthropometric measurements	31	positive biochemical outcomes	9
		biochemical analysis	29	positive anthropometric outcomes	13
		drawings and games	10	none	48
		other	3
Table 3: Nutrition Education intervention methodology and result indicators