Ascertainment and critical assessment of the views of the general public and healthcare professionals on nutrigenomics in Greece

• Published in: Personalized medicine Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 201 - 210
• Main Authors: Pavlidis, Cristiana, Karamitri, Angeliki, Barakou, Aglaia, Cooper, David N, Poulas, Konstantinos, Topouzis, Stavros, Patrinos, George P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Future Medicine Ltd 01.03.2012
• Subjects: Biomedical research; Decision making; Design; dietitian; education; Gene expression; general public awareness; general public opinion; Genetic screening; healthcare professionals; healthcare professionals ’ opinions; Hospitals; Human subjects; Medicine; Methods; Nutrigenomics; Nutrition; nutritional choices; Preventive medicine; Public health administration; questionnaire; Studies; Greece; questionnaire; education; healthcare professionals’ opinions; general public opinion; nutrigenomics; nutritional choices; general public awareness; dietitian; healthcare professionals
• ISSN: 1741-0541; 1744-828X; 1744-828X
• DOI: 10.2217/pme.12.3

The aim of this study was to understand the general public ’s and healthcare professionals ’ views on nutrigenomics. We designed a cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals (n = 87) and the general public (n = 1504) in the three largest cities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras). Our data revealed that only 11.5% of respondents from the general public had been advised to take a genetic test in order to explore the relationship between their genes and their nutritional status. Although 80.5% of healthcare professionals would have been willing to recommend their patients/clients to undergo nutrigenomic analysis to correlate their genetic profile with their diet, only 17.2% of respondents had actually done so. In general, the general public was opposed to direct-access nutrigenomics testing. The application of genomic information in the context of nutritional choice requires the continuing education of healthcare professionals and the dissemination of accurate and reliable information to the general public.