Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards probiotics for gut-skin axis among health science undergraduates: An online cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundNutrition-based strategies to improve skin health via gut-skin axis have become increasingly popular. As future healthcare providers, health science undergraduates have the potential to shape public attitudes and practices related to health management. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards probiotics for gut-skin axis among health science undergraduates. MethodsAn online cross-sectional study was performed on 221 health science undergraduates using a self-administered questionnaire. ResultsAmong the 221 respondents, 48.0% of health science undergraduates demonstrated good knowledge, 67.4% had neutral attitudes and 69.2% exhibited poor practices with regards to probiotics. Females scored significantly higher on knowledge score than males (p = 0.002). There were significant differences in knowledge (p = 0.003) and practice (p = 0.015) scores across different years of study, with fourth-year students outperforming first- and second-year students. Additionally, significant differences in knowledge (p < 0.001) and attitude (p < 0.001) scores were found among the three groups of cumulative grade point average (CGPA) range. Undergraduates with a CGPA of 2.50–2.99 achieved the lowest scores on knowledge and attitude components. Significant correlations were found between the knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice, and attitude-practice variables (p < 0.001). Health science undergraduates with lower knowledge scores (β = −0.231, p = 0.007) and higher practice scores (β = 0.269, p < 0.001) had greater skin problems. ConclusionThe current study demonstrated that most of the health science undergraduates had good knowledge, neutral attitudes, and poor practices of probiotics for gut-skin axis. Further study on assessing the source of information of probiotics towards gut-skin axis among health science undergraduates is highly warranted.