Stefanos Tyrovolas, Eleutherios Topalidis, Lida Karaveli, Demosthenes Panagiotakos
Abstract
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to evaluate Greek physician’s knowledge and viewpoints for the consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Methods: 1013 physicians from all over the Greece, mean age 45±7 years old were enrolled. From them 72.4% were males and 27.5% were females. The retrieved information included basic demographic characteristics, physician’s viewpoints for certain dietary habits and food groups and their knowledge and believes for the consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. For those reasons the researchers used a closed questionnaire with scaled answers ranged 1-10. Results: The majority of the physicians (<92%) believes that a healthier diet has a significant role in individual’s health and associated with a better cardiovascular health status. Furthermore, main viewpoint of the physicians was the opinion that the consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids had a beneficial role in individual’s cardiovascular health (mean score 9/10). Moreover, revealed a positive association between the level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet of physicians and their prescription’s frequencies in pharmaceutics n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (rho=0.206, p<0.001). N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids recommended mainly for clinical conditions like hypertriglyceridemia (94%), while their recommendation in secondary prevention (59.4%) and heart failure (35%) was not quite adopted. Conclusions: The majority of the physicians recommend the use of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for clinical conditions like hypertriglyceridemia, while enhancements needed in their recommednation for heart failure and secondary cardiovascular prevention.
Keywords: n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, physicians, cardiovascular diseases, Mediterranean diet