General practitioners roles and experiences with functional foods containing probiotics and plant sterols

Abstract

AimThe purpose of this research is to explore whether general practitioners have experiences with functional foods within their clinical practice.BackgroundPrevious 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.MethodIn 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.FindingsIt 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.