Empowering general practitioners in nutrition communication: individual-based nutrition communication strategies in Croatia

Background: There are a number of factors influencing individual food habits and the prerequisite for effective national strategy development is reorganization of factors aggravating or facilitating this dynamic process. Aims: The aims of this paper are to present a Croatian contextual framework influencing individual-based nutrition communication strategies and to identify important factors by general practitioners (GPs) and population. Methods: Two Croatian surveys are presented. The first one was carried out among GPs (random 425 GPs, all with office on lease) and the second on an adult population in Croatia (random 9060 respondents) answering the question: 'In the past year, has anyone advised you to change your behaviour?' Results: The Croatian case studies showed that GPs considered smoking and alcohol as more important public health issues than unbalanced nutrition and physical activity. GPs also recognized their role in individual work with patients in secondary and tertiary prevention, less in primary prevention or work with groups and the community. Among the obstacles in individual-based communication in daily work, they reported lack of time, lack of incentives, lack of knowledge and lack of family approach in nutrition consultation. They were more likely to advise the elderly, those with lower education, unemployed, overweight, those who lived alone and those who visited GP's office regularly. Differences in respondents' answers are determined by education and workplace.