Population attitudes towards changing dietary habits and reliance on general practitioners in Spain.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between population attitudes towards modifying food behaviour and reliance on General Practitioners (GPs) as nutrition educators.


METHODS
Personal interview in a random sample of the general population of the Canary Islands as part of the Canary Islands Nutrition Survey.


METHODS
1747 individuals aged 6-74y.


METHODS
Attitudes towards changing food behaviour and reliance on GPs.


RESULTS
Response rate was 67%. Physicians were the most reliable source of nutrition information with 79% of the population considering them as highly reliable. More than 60% of the population showed a favourable attitude towards increasing fruit and vegetables and towards decreasing alcohol, sugar and pastries. Reliance on GPs was associated with better attitudes towards increasing fruits, decreasing meat, pastries, sugar and losing weight.


CONCLUSIONS
Population attitudes towards changing certain dietary behaviours were associated with having the greatest reliance on GPs.
Serra-Majem
L L
LL
Community Nutrition Research Group, School of Health Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. lserra@cicei.ulpgc.es
Calvo
J R
JR
Male
M L
ML
Ribas
L
L
Lainez
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003376:Counseling; D005194:Family Practice; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012923:Social Class; D013030:Spain