Title:Study about How A Sample of Portuguese People Perceive the Health Benefits of Dietary Fibre
Volume: 13
Issue: 2
Author(s): Raquel P.F. Guine*, Manuela Ferreira, Paula Correia and Joao Duarte
Affiliation:
- Escola Superior Agrária de Viseu, Quinta da Alagoa, Estrada de Nelas, Ranhados, 3500-606 Viseu,Portugal
Keywords:
Dietary fibre, health effect, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, survey.
Abstract: Background: Dietary Fibre (DF) has been part of human diet since ever, and its benefits
for the human health have been well established and scientifically confirmed. However, it is important
to study to what extent people are aware of those benefits.
Objective: Having in mind the importance of DF the present work was undertaken to study the level
of knowledge of people residing in Portugal about the health effects related to DF.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken on a non-probabilistic sample of 382
adult participants. Descriptive statistics were used together with some inferential tests, all using the
software SPSS and considering a level of significance of 5%.
Results: The results allowed concluding that people were differently informed about the effects of
DF in preventing and/or treating various diseases, being constipation the most recognized, followed
in decreasing order by obesity, bowel cancer, cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and
breast cancer. The results also showed that significant differences were encountered between age
groups for most of the diseases evaluated, but not between genders, levels of education or living environments.
Conclusion: Generally, it was concluded that the participants in this study were relatively well informed
about the roles of DF in preventing and/or treating several diseases.
