3441 Physician Attitudes Towards the Use of Dietary Interventions in Their Practice: Preliminary Results

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Diet-related diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome comprise a large portion of primary care visits in the United States. However, primary care physicians seldom prescribe dietary interventions that effectively treat these conditions, and their rate of use has declined in recent years. There are many plausible reasons for this decline, including baseline nutrition education, perceived efficacy of the intervention, time limitations, and compensation. No study has been conducted to assess which of these factors physicians perceive as relevant to their decision to use dietary interventions in their practice. Our study aims to identify key factors that ubiquitously limit physicians’ use of dietary interventions. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We created a 30-item survey designed to evaluate physicians’ self-reported use of dietary interventions, relevant knowledge base, comfort employing these interventions, and attitudes regarding the importance of such interventions in their practices. This survey was was distributed to internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine residents and physicians at Michigan Medicine and St. Joseph hospitals in Ann Arbor, MI. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Socio-demographic data, knowledge base and attitudes will be summarized and analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple regression modeling following the administration of the survey. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: We hope that our study may elucidate identify specific avenues of increasing the use of dietary interventions, and thus of improving treatment efficacy for diet-related disorders in the United States.