Abstract
Nutrition care should be an integral part of general practitioners’ (GPs’) daily work with patients. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of Croatian GPs toward nutrition and nutrition care, and to evaluate the interconnection between their attitudes and implementation of nutrition care in GPs offices. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 17.0% of randomly selected GPs, from May to July of 2013, via a specially designed anonymous questionnaire. The study showed that 36.0% of the Croatian GPs had satisfactory number of positive attitudes (5 or more) toward nutrition and nutrition care. There was statistically significant difference in the median number of positive attitudes based on the additional education of GPs in nutrition and their ailment from chronic diseases (p < 0.001 and p = 0.022, respectively). The Spearman rank correlation between GPs’ attitudes toward nutrition and nutrition care and their practice, i.e., the implementation of nutrition care in GPs’ everyday work with patients was rs = −0.235 (p < 0.001). In order to provide nutrition care in GPs’ offices in Croatia, strategies for changing GPs’ attitudes toward nutrition and nutrition care are needed.
Highlights
Poor nutrition is one of the most dominant lifestyle-related risk factors for chronic diseases [1,2]and has been shown to have adverse effects on acute illnesses [3]
General practitioners (GPs) had a satisfactory number of positive attitudes (5 or more) toward investigated variables, pointing to the rather unsatisfactory situation regarding the researched issues within the study population
The determined proportion of Croatian GPs with a satisfactory number of positive attitudes was much lower than the proportions of GPs determined in similar studies conducted in New Zealand, Taiwan, the USA, and the UK, where the percentage of positive attitudes toward nutritional statements were above 90%, above 95%, 82%, and 99%, respectively [2,9,21,22]
Summary
Poor nutrition is one of the most dominant lifestyle-related risk factors for chronic diseases [1,2]and has been shown to have adverse effects on acute illnesses [3]. GPs are positioned in contact with people, and patients expect their physicians to provide them with health information [9]. They are a trusted source of advice on a range of issues, including nutrition [1,10,11]. Health workers in primary health care settings are important providers of nutrition care, because they can motivate even healthy individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles [5]. The primary health care setting has been identified as an ideal setting for implementing chronic disease management programs, including the provision of nutrition care [1,12,13]
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