Health-care professionals’ perceived trust in and willingness to recommend functional foods: A qualitative study

• Published in: Appetite 2007-03, Vol.48 (2), p.241-247
• Main Authors: Landström, Eva, Sidenvall, Birgitta, Koivisto Hursti, Ulla-Kaisa, Magnusson, Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Attitude of Health Personnel; Biological and medical sciences; Consumer Product Safety; Dietetics; Dieticians; Evidence-Based Medicine; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Female; food beliefs; food choices; Food, Organic; Functional foods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; health claims; Health Food; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; health promotion; Health-care professionals; Humans; Interviews; Interviews as Topic; Male; Medical sciences; MEDICIN; MEDICINE; Metabolic diseases; Middle Aged; nurses; Nurses - psychology; nutrition knowledge; Perception; Perceptions; perceptions (cognitive); Physicians; Physicians - psychology; Primary Health Care; professionals; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; qualitative analysis; Qualitative study; Registered nurses; Sweden; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; Willingness to recommend
• ISSN: 0195-6663; 1095-8304; 1095-8304
• DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2006.09.008

The aim of this study was to investigate some Swedish dieticians’, registered nurses’ and physicians’ thoughts about functional foods and their willingness to recommend such foods to patients. The health-care professionals were recruited to participate in one group interview with each profession. Participants were recruited through mailed invitations from primary care centers in Uppsala County district. The interviewed physicians and registered nurses, in contrast to the dieticians, expressed more skepticism and distrust about functional foods, their claimed effects on health and the research documenting these effects. The participating dieticians were more willing to recommend the products to patients than were the participating nurses and physicians. Differences in educational and professional background and level of proficiency in nutrition may have affected the disparate beliefs about functional foods among the interviewed groups. Confusion among patients could be a consequence but further research into these disparities is needed.