When advising patients on diet and health, the general practitioner (GP) makes judgements based on the evidence available. Since current evidence on diet and cardiovascular disease is conflicted and confusing, we surveyed the current consensus amongst GPs. The aim of this study was to determine the views of GPs on dietary saturated fat, carbohydrates and long chain omega-3 fatty acids in the management of cardiovascular disease.
An online questionnaire inviting participants to comment on seven contentious statements on diet and cardiovascular disease. Questionnaire circulated to the 1800 members of South West Thames Faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Participants were invited to tick "Agree", "Disagree" or "Not sure" and were encouraged to add comments for each question. The results were analysed with a combination of statistical analysis and thematic analysis of comments.
There were 89 responses. Most GPs seem well aware that drug treatment alone is inadequate and that dietary advice is important. However, there was considerable disagreement about the roles of saturated fats and carbohydrates in cardiovascular disease and "Not sure" responses ranged from 12 to 40.7%. The 40.7% related to a statement on long chain omega-3 fatty acids. Analysis of comments revealed more opinions including an awareness of the need to warn patients about trans-fatty acids.
Although the GP response rate was poor, responders do seem to see dietary advice as part of their role but do not consider themselves as experts. Education in this area should have a higher priority.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 September 2019.
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#16,133,008
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Outputs from BMC Family Practice
#641
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#174,842
of 350,113 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Family Practice
#1
of 1 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 27,788,803 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,101 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.3. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 1 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them
