Assessment of the professional community awareness about innovative diets prescribed for hypertension

Abstract

Due to the fact of constantly increasing incidence of arterial hypertension and the large role of nutrition in the treatment and prevention of this disease, the assessment of the awareness of the medical community and patients about the trends in the development of therapeutic and prophylactic diets is relevant. The aim of the research was to assess the physician and patient awareness on the trends in the development of therapeutic and prophylactic diets and different rations prescribed for hypertension prevention. Material and methods. On the SurveyMonkey platform, questionnaires were created for different medical specialties and patient of various departments. Access to the survey was free, the mailing list was carried out through the professional communities of physicians on the Internet. In turn, the doctors-respondents were asked to distribute the link for patients among those who were undergoing treatment or were on dispensary observation for the pathology of the cardiovascular system. Respondents were asked about their attitudes, knowledge, and compliance with existing dietary guidelines. The number of respondents was 300 doctors of various specialties and 300 patients. Results. The most recognizable dietary recommendations among patients were: low-calorie (41.1%), low-carbohydrate (39.4%), vegetarian (39.0%). However, the most popular (the commitment to them was the greatest) were: low in calories (27.6%), low in carbohydrates (25.6%), low in fat (24.4%). Among the doctors, the distribution was as follows - in addition to the classic therapeutic and prophylactic diets prescribed for certain diseases, the most recognizable diets were: Mediterranean (59.8%), low-calorie (59.0%), low-fat (57.3%); and the most commonly prescribed: Mediterranean (47.0%), low-carb (44.4%), low-fat (40.2%). The most recognizable dietary pattern among patients was the low-calorie diet (adherence to it was also maximum). As for physicians, the most recognized and most recommended preventively was the Mediterranean eating pattern. At the same time, the prevalence and recognition of the DASH diet, which, according to the opinion of the world community, has the most pronounced preventive and therapeutic properties, according to the survey, was low (7.3% of the respondents were aware of this diet). Conclusions. According to the results of this work, it is necessary to consider the possibility of combining three diets (low-calorie, Mediterranean and DASH diets) to achieve the maximum therapeutic and preventive effect while maintaining popularity among patients.