NUTRITION-RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF PRACTISING NIGERIAN MEDICAL DOCTORS TO NUTRITION COUNSELLING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 2020

OBJECTIVE: Adequate nutrition is needed to enhance the immune system, especially at the time of COVID-19 pandemic for disease prevention and treatment. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess physicians' knowledge to nutrition-related issues of COVID-19 infection and explore their attitudes to offering nutritional counselling to patients. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional online study conducted among doctors in private and public institutions across the six (6) geo-political zones in Nigeria using the social media online platforms of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) from August 17 to September 26, 2020. A categorisation of the knowledge score into sufficient and insufficient was done using the mean (sd) knowledge score. The attitude score was categorised into positive and negative using the median (IQR) attitude score, and bivariate analysis was used to test for associations. RESULTS: Responses were gotten from a total of 176 doctors over six weeks of data collection. Majority 97(55.1%) were females, and 84 (47.7%) had practised between 11 and 20 years. Majority 95(54.0%) had insufficient knowledge, while 128(72.7%) of the respondents had a negative attitude to nutrition counselling of patients regarding COVID-19. Females had significantly better knowledge about nutrition-related issues of COVID-19 (p=0.004). However, there was no significant difference in the respondents' attitude based on professional cadre, gender, place of practice, and years of practice. CONCLUSION: Respondents were deficient in the knowledge of common food items containing relevant nutrients essential for boosting immunity. Hence, there is a need to encourage physicians training in nutrition and nutritional counselling.