Awareness, attitude and practice of Indian population regarding probiotic foods in everyday life

The gastrointestinal problems in India are among the most common diseases that occur frequently. In an article it was mentioned that probiotics and related products play an important role in prevention of gastrointestinal disorders. There are numerous products available in the market but whether these are readily being consumed by people and are known about their benefits. In this paper, a study on knowledge, attitude and practice for probiotic foods among Indian participants were conducted from July 2023 to September 2023 using a structured questionnaire. It was circulated via emails and online social groups within all the states of the country. The responses were analysed using statistical package for social sciences v31 and through statistical tools like T test, F test and linear regression. To assess the correlations between the scores of knowledge, attitude and practice, Pearson correlation was applied. The mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores were 16, 23 and 8 respectively as determined by the scores from the responses. The knowledge, attitude and practice scores varied from respondents for age (P = 0.000181), gender (P = 0.000126), states (P = 4.19616433247292E-13), field of specialization (P = 0.000148) and occupation (P = 0.000794). It is found that the participants from the states of Uttarakhand and Haryana were significantly aware about the benefits and applicability but somehow lack knowledge in the right amount of consumption of these foods from nutritional aspects, whereas the participants from Delhi and Karnataka were found to have a positive approach towards the market value about the probiotic products in future. It is concluded that to improve the demand in India, some training sessions at the household level could be beneficial to increase right amount of consumption and awareness in the country.