Knowledge, attitude and practice of Lebanese primary care physicians in nutrition counseling: a self-reported survey

Abstract

This is a descriptive study among a convenience sample of PCPs in Lebanon at two annual conferences in 2014 using an anonymous questionnaire. Findings Response rate was 54.6%. Overall, physicians considered that they have good to very good nutritional knowledge. Although they rated their formal nutritional education poorly, they had a positive attitude towards nutritional counseling and reported practicing general nutritional counseling with their patients. Barriers to nutritional counseling were: time, perceived poor patient adherence to diet, gap in physician's nutritional knowledge and lack of insurance coverage for dietitian fees. Changes should be made to medical education curricula to include nutrition courses related to prevalent health problems.

Nutrition competence of primary care physicians in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

“…Positive attitudes toward incorporating nutrition care in the management of patients living with diet-related chronic disease were found. This is consistent with other studies conducted around the world, which indicated that primary care physicians realise nutrition care as an important aspect of their clinical practice 14 19–21…”

Nutrition care by primary-care physicians: advancing our understanding using the COM-B framework

“…However, additional training in topics such as motivational interviewing 229 seemed to increase motivation to provide nutrition care (50). In two studies, the authors interpreted PCPs' low motivation for nutrition care as a key factor contributing to the evidence-practice gap (39,40).…”

“…Evidence exists that PCPs' nutrition guidance practices are not only determined by barriers (19,21,61,62,73,74,(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86) but also by driving forces, self-efficacy factors and nutritional attitudes and beliefs, (21,23,34,61,62,66,68,70,72,73,(81)(82)(83)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89). In the studies reviewed, having a personal interest in nutrition (38,39,44), having healthy personal eating habits (46) and being a more experienced PCP (48,50) appeared to increase PCPs' perception of their nutrition capability 349 and motivation to provide nutrtion care (38,40,41). Early literature established that physicians with better personal health habits have more positive attitudes toward counseling (90).…”

“…PCPs with greater self-efficacy in nutrition were more likely to report providing nutrition care (47).Furthermore, PCPs' perceptions of their nutrition capability were higher in more experienced PCPs (48, 50) but did not seem to be affected by age or gender (39). Having a personal interest in nutrition (38,39,44) and having healthy personal eating habits (46) also 209 appeared to influence PCPs' perception of their nutrition capability. Nutrition topics currently in the media reportedly provided a ready means of increasing nutrition knowledge (39) as was association with other health care professionals, such as dietitians (51).…”

“…Having a personal interest in nutrition (38,39,44) and having healthy personal eating habits (46) also 209 appeared to influence PCPs' perception of their nutrition capability. Nutrition topics currently in the media reportedly provided a ready means of increasing nutrition knowledge (39) as was association with other health care professionals, such as dietitians (51). Several studies demonstrated that PCPs requested further training in nutrition to incorporate and reinforce current nutrition recommendations into practice (40,43,46,48).…”