Survey on diet, nutrition and health knowledge and awareness

[lynmynott]

Abdulrahman Alreshidi, a PhD student in human nutrition at the University of Glasgow, is conducting a survey on diet and knowledge and awareness of foods, nutrition and health.

Thyroid diseases are one of the most common medical conditions globally. Untreated thyroid disease causes cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol and harms individuals' physical and mental health. In women, thyroid disease might also result in miscarriages, infertility, premature birth, and irregular menstrual cycles. Thyroid diseases and their symptoms are well known by the general public, and sometimes by healthcare practitioners.

Iodine, a nutrient found in dairy and some fish, plays an important role in thyroid disease, but is not well known by the public. Understanding how people gain information about diet and (thyroid) health, to convert it into practice is important to inform awareness campaigns and medical education.

The survey explores the knowledge, awareness and practices of people with and without thyroid disease in the context of diet, nutrition and thyroid health by using an online survey asking relevant questions.

The questionnaire also asks about general health information (e.g. weight, height, health conditions) and personal information (e.g. age, gender, and partial postcode (allowing to identify in which region a location is, and whether the sample is evenly distributed geographically).

All data collected will be anonymised and not be sent to third parties

The survey will run until 30th January 2023.

Thyroid UK firmly believes that nutrition plays a key role in thyroid disease and this survey is important to understand how people view diet in the context of their thyroid health.

To take part in the survey go to: bit.ly/DietandThyroidSurvey

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

In cased you don't trust links obscured by link shorteners (e.g. bit.ly) - and I don't - the full link is this:

glasgow-research.onlinesurv...

(It will appear shortened by HU, but you get an intermediate screen that allows you to decide whether to go on or stop.)

[PolyannaYorkshire]

Lost my survey on my phone when I'd just about completed it.. so I hope the PHD student was able to access it as I can't get back to it. Such important work too!

[lynmynott Partner Thyroid UK in reply to PolyannaYorkshire]

I'm sure they would have got whatever you did.

[crimple]

Hello lynmynott I completed the survey on nutrition and thyroid, part of research at Glasgow Uni.

Some feedback:

I found you needed to concentrate and as some of the lists were long, I had to keep scrolling back to the top to make sure I was clicking under the correct heading.

There was nothing about being GF or lactose free at the beginning of the survey. A big mistake in my opinion. So, when it came to sections about bread, dairy etc I answered as though I did eat them and hoped there would be somewhere at the end of the survey to make clear that I only ate LF and GF versions of those foods.

The survey did pick up that I didn't eat eggs but there was also a section on poultry. I can't eat chicken but can eat turkey.

I did eventually get chance to comment on my food intolerances at the end. I feel that quite a few of our members who might have wanted to respond to survey may have been put off because food intolerances were not asked about at the start.

On this site we know a lot of members are GF and LF. Maybe the researchers need to be aware of this!

At the end you are asked to input weight and height. The weight can be in pounds or Kilos.

Is this Britsh pounds or American?!!

Also, the height question could be in feet or centimetres. I am 5ft 8 inches or 173 cms. The system didnt allow me to input 5.66 feet or 5ft 8 inches!!! The question should be inches or centimteres!

Some of the foods mentioned would suggest they were using American diet details!!

I think the researchers may have missed a trick by not asking some basic questions about the participants thyroid status.

best wishes

[lynmynott Partner Thyroid UK in reply to crimple]

Thanks so much crimple for your review. Are you happy for me to send your review to them, anonymously, of course.

[crimple in reply to lynmynott]

yes please do

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to crimple]

Is this Britsh pounds or American?!!

They have been the same since 1959 at exactly 0.45359237 kg.