We studied knowledge and confidence regarding healthcare counseling specifically for metabolic syndrome by nutritionists in order to gather materials to determine how nutritionists' continuing education should be carried out. A questionnaire survey was conducted among nutritionists who participated in continuing education program held in February, 2009 in Prefecture S. Questions included 1) if they knew terms used in health care counseling such as “metabolic syndrome“ (recognition), 2) if they considered themselves capable of taking necessary actions for healthcare counseling (confidence) and 3) if their knowledge was accurate (accuracy). As for the recognition score, respondents were asked to indicate that “they knew the details“, “they knew the term but not the details“, or “they did not know the term“ of 18 terms used in healthcare counseling. As for the confidence score, they were asked to indicate such statements as “they can give required healthcare counseling“ (point 4) and “they cannot do what is required“ (point 1). As for the accuracy score, they were asked to tell “correct“ or “incorrect“ regarding 15 statements related to specific healthcare counseling, and the number of incorrect answers was deducted from that of correct answers. Seventy-eight out of 100 participants submitted the questionnaires(collection ratio 78%). Terms that respondents did not know were “rapport“ followed by “adiponectin“, “action modification model“ and “microalbuminuria“. The items that respondents answered as “they cannot do what is required“ were “to cause others to quit smoking“ and “to propose exercise programs“. The statement that more respondents considered “incorrect“ was “risk of developing cancer by a person who stopped smoking for five years or more becomes almost the same of the person who doesn't smoke“(correct). The accuracy score did not correlate with such factors as the number of years spent in nutrition guidance, academic background, annual income, and attendance of lectures. Respondents older than 50 earned scores lower than younger persons and those with more interests in specific health guidance earned higher accuracy scores. The respondents interested in healthcare counseling specific for metabolic syndrome had more accurate knowledge than others. There were hardly any correlation between confidence and accuracy, and those who were confident of offering appropriate healthcare guidance were often found to have inaccurate knowledge. Continuing education which offers learning to all is essential.

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The intakes of monosaccharides and disaccharides constituents by the Japanese are not known due to a lack of Japanese food composition databases for them. In a previous study, we reported the data for 42 commercial beverages and chilled desserts and 29 homemade snacks. In this study, for 64 common types of sweet snacks, we collected 5 samples of each snack from 5 different companies and measured glucose, sucrose, fructose and lactose by the enzymatic method. The sample size of this study was rather small for the establishment of the reliable data and more samples are required to be analyzed.

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