Nurses’ knowledge and awareness on functional foods

Functional foods and nutraceuticals may represent a novel therapeutic approach to prevent or attenuate diet-related disease. Nurses often fill the role of nutrition counselors of the patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between nurse’s knowledge and attitudes about functional foods and their recommendation, intentions toward functional foods. Ex Post Facto design was used to collect information from 50 nurses using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to explore the consumption, awareness and perceived risk factors related to functional foods among nurses. Results indicate that majority (80%) of the nurses were aware of the term ‘functional foods’, while they had moderate knowledge on functional foods as nearly half of them consumed functional foods on a daily basis and actively seek information about functional foods. The bioactive ingredients considered most effective at improving their health were omega-3 fatty acids (42%) and dietary fibers (40%). Health areas nurses were concerned about were primarily reported as diabetes (62%), heart disease (52%) and followed by hypertension (44%) and immunity (42%). Predominately participants reported that they have confidence on foods functional foods. Nurses’ attitudes towards the safety and the efficiency of functional foods could influence their attitudes on whether or not to recommend these foods to the patients