Knowledge and Awareness of Food and Drug Interactions (FDI): a Survey Among Health Care Professionals

Background: Most of the food and drug interactions (FDI) remain unnoticed and under reported due to either lack of proper history, follow up or unawareness. Certain foods and specific nutrients in foods, may affect the overall bioa-vailability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and therapeutic efficacy of medications. FDI occur due to extension of drug action or due to interaction between the drug and herbal medicines as well as dietary supplements and food products. Objectives: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and awareness regarding the common FDI among the doctors in their day to day practice. Materials and Methods: Survey included randomly selected 200 doctors divided into 3 groups [65 Professors, 83 Post Graduates (PGs) and 52 Interns] from JSS Tertiary care hospital, Mysore, India. Assessment was through FDI Questionnaire which consisted of 32 questions (included dichotomous, multiple choice and open ended ques-tions). The differences between groups were compared using one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post-hoc test. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The mean scores (mean ± SD) on the overall test were 26 ± 4.08, 22.89 ± 3.72, 21.35 ± 4.2 for professors, PGs and interns respectively, with 31 being a perfect score. Professors had good knowledge about FDI compared to others (p < 0.001). Only 33% participants have noticed FDI during their practice. A majority of doctors had heard, felt necessary to report and update their knowledge about FDI along with adequate patient counseling. Conclusion: The study showed professors had better expertise compared to others. Intensive FDI training and integration of knowledge among healthcare professionals, especially in the younger health care professionals, is a requisite.