Red meat and processed red meat consumption behaviour of healthcare professionals: do they participate in the World Health Organization’s view of red meat carcasses and red meat carcinogens?

Objective: This study investigated the consumption behaviours of healthcare professionals in relation to red meat and processed red meat products.Design: This study included a questionnaire conducted through face-to-face interviews with 149 health professionals. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the extent to which health professionals agreed with the WHO classification of red meat and processed red meat on their list of carcinogenic products.Setting: This research was carried out in İzmir, which is Turkey's third largest city. The survey was conducted in 2016 by holding face to face interviews with forty-three specialist doctors, sixteen doctors, twelve dentists, sixty-four nurses and fourteen pharmacists.Subjects: Nationally representative sample of healthcare professionals in Turkey.Results: People educated in healthcare are especially cautious about the consumption of processed red meat products. The results of the research revealed the importance of processing and cooking patterns in red meat consumption preferences.Conclusions: The consequences of the research, in terms of breaking down prejudices and overcoming the anxieties of those with health concerns who do not consume red meat, are important. In fact, the results show that healthcare professionals consume red meat, but they are more careful in their consumption of processed red meat products. This result is in line with the WHO report. © 2019 The Authors.
2015-ZRF-047
Acknowledgements: The authors thank all the healthcare professionals who have given their precious time during the fieldwork and patiently answered the questions and sincerely responded. Financial support: This work was supported by the Ege University Scientific Research Projects Coordination (Project No: 2015-ZRF-047). Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: We worked together with N.D. in this study which I am responsible author. Also she is supervisor in my master course and ongoing PhD process. She has numerous national and international notifications and articles in the areas of food safety and food economics. N.D. teaches at university in these fields. This work contains a section from O.S.A.’s completed master thesis. The questionnaire form was designed and analysed together. Fieldwork was done by O.S.A. The Turkish language of this study was written together and translated by N.D. into English. It was send to a native speaker for proofreading by O.S.A., who can offer the paper showing that this work is edited by a native English speaker, if requested. Ethics of human subject participation:This study was conducted according to guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Ege University. Verbal consent was witnessed and formally recorded.