title: General practitioners roles and experiences with functional foods containing probiotics and plant sterols.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this research is to explore whether general practitioners have experiences with functional foods within their clinical practice.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Previous research and editorials have suggested that general practitioners should have more involvement and knowledge of functional foods. This is due to the thought that functional foods may be consumed by their patients that could lead to other issues, such as patients not taking their medication. Therefore, research into general practitioners involvement with functional foods needs to be conducted.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 10 semi-structured open interviews were used with a topic guide. These interviews where digitally audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts where analysed using thematic analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was found that general practitioners believed they did not have a direct role with functional foods and should not be involved with discussing them with their patients. They felt that if they where to be involved with functional foods then they would need more training and information about them. They also felt that functional foods could be empowering for their patients.
authors.affiliation: Master of Science Student,Department of Psychology,University of Manchester,Manchester,UK.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Melling
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D055951:Functional Food; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064406:Patient Harm / Q000517:prevention & control; D010358:Patient Participation; D010840:Phytosterols / Q000502:physiology*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D019936:Probiotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D036301:Qualitative Research
chemical_list: D010840:Phytosterols
keywords: cholesterol; functional foods; general practitioners; irritable bowel syndrome; plant sterols; probiotics