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Adherence Of Spanish Primary Physicians And Clinical Practise To The Mediterranean Diet

Abstract

Background/Objectives

The primary objective of this study was to explore physicians’ adherence to the dietary pattern known as the Mediterranean diet (MD). As a secondary objective we assessed physicians’ awareness on the benefits of the MD and of the possibility of prescribing it.

Subjects/Methods

Physicians’ adherence to the MD was evaluated through the Spanish associations SEMERGEN and CAMFIC, who sent the validated PREDIMED screener to their affiliates. The results reflected a high, medium, low or very low level of adherence depending on total score. The sample was drawn between 2014 and 2016. The second questionnaire evaluated the physicians’ knowledge of the MD and their opinion about recommending it.

Results

The PREDIMED test was answered by 422 Spanish physicians. In 8 out of 14 questions, more than 50% of the individuals scored only 1 point. However, 3 questions resulted in 1 point being scored by almost all physicians. Thus, on average, 55% of questions obtained 1-point scoring. The second questionnaire was answered by 212 physicians; 70% of them considered themselves to be aware of the benefits of the MD. More than 60% said they could invest 5 min of their time to recommend the MD.

Conclusions

Primary care physicians do not show a high level of adherence to the MD and emphasize the need for creating tools to evaluate it in their patients. This research can be useful as both a database and a justification for the creation of a new protocol to help physicians increase their own and their patients’ MD adherence.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the support provided by the following Associations of Medical Doctors: CAMFIC (Scientific Association of Medical Family Doctors) and SemFYC (Federation of the 17th Community and Family Medical Doctors Societies in Spain). This work was part of the Paralelo40 - International Surveillance System on Mediterranean Diet initiative from the Mediterranean Diet Foundation.

Funding Information

This article is published as part of a supplement sponsored by the Mediterranean Diet Foundation and the Diputació de Barcelona.

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Correspondence to Anna Bach-Faig.

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Conflict of interest

RE has received lecture fees from Brewers of Europe, Belgium; Cerveceros de España, Fundación Dieta Mediterránea, Instituto Cervantes, Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva and Lilly´s Laboratories SA, Spain. RE has also received grant support from Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) Obesidad, Health Research Project grant from the Carlos III Institute of Health, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (FIS), The Marathon’s foundation of TV3 and the Grand Fontaine, Spain; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), United States of America (USA). The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Sentenach-Carbo, A., Batlle, C., Franquesa, M. et al. Adherence Of Spanish Primary Physicians And Clinical Practise To The Mediterranean Diet. Eur J Clin Nutr 72 (Suppl 1), 92–98 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0314-8

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