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CRN talks supplements to hundreds of doctors and nurses

By Clarisse Douaud, 25-Sep-2007

Related topics: Industry

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) is undertaking a survey of healthcare professionals in order to address the lack of communication between doctors and patients on the subject of dietary supplements.

The trade association has contracted research firm Ipsos to survey 900 medical doctors and 300 office-based nurses via an Internet questionnaire. These groups consist of primary care physicians and nurses seeing patients on a regular basis.

 

 

 

It has long been a quest of the dietary supplement industry to get the healthcare profession on board in both recommending its products and staying informed of advances in the field.

 

 

 

To this end, the CRN survey is designed to get answers as to what healthcare professionals' basic attitudes are to dietary supplements and health, and how information could be best directed to them.

 

 

 

"We need to know that doctors are getting the right information on supplements," CRN vice president of communications Judy Blatman told NutraIngredients-USA.. "And as an industry, we need to expand our relationship with healthcare professionals."

 

 

The Internet survey has selected a projectable population and is being fielded throughout September, with results expected to be released in early November.

 

 

 

"It's going to be very interesting for the whole industry," said Blatman. "But before we determine what direction we go in, we need to get the results."

 

 

 

Part of CRN's long-term aim is to create awareness of the need for healthcare professionals to talk to patients about whether or not they are using dietary supplements.

 

 

 

"We became very interested in how doctors recommend supplements," said Blatman.

 

 

 

It has been found that patients often withhold this information from physicians, because they think they are not sympathetic to the practice. At the same time, CRN claims 68 percent of consumers trust doctors most for giving them information on these products. As such, doctors and nurses are in the best position to be providing consumers with reliable information on supplementation.

 

 

 

The association did a literature search to find out what research had previously been done on healthcare professionals and dietary supplements and found there was a "gap in knowledge".

 

 

 

"A search of the current medical literature reveals less than a dozen articles in peer-reviewed publications on the subject of personal use of supplements among clinicians, with papers published since 2000 clearly reflecting a growing interest in the topic among academicians," said CRN president and CEO Steve Mister.

 

 

 

According to Mister, many doctors previously surveyed agreed that education about supplements would be helpful to them. As such, the present survey will try to ascertain if informing doctors through avenues such as continuing education and certification would be useful, or even possible.

 

 

 

The survey will also try to uncover what physicians' personal views of dietary supplements are, and how this affects their professional engagement with the topic.

 

 

 

"At this stage, it's impossible to say with certainty whether the personal use of supplements by healthcare professionals correlates to their recommendations to patients," said Mister.

 

 

 

The research forms part of CRN's three-year public relations campaign, "Life…supplemented", which is mainly aimed at consumers. CRN wants to encourage a perception that taking dietary supplements is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, in much the same way as it is widely accepted that exercise and a well-balanced diet are pillars of such a lifestyle.

 

 

 

The entire project is drawing on the support of over 25 dietary supplement companies.

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