Assessment of Knowledge and Consumption Level of Probiotics Dairy Products among the Students and Staff of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

An increasing interest concerning probiotics has emerged among the public, researchers, governmental organizations (such as the WHO/FAO), and medicinal and food companies. Little is known about probiotic consumption, despite its increasing availability. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge of the educated level of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran towards the benefits of probiotics.  This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 400   academic staff and students at Mashhad University of medical sciences through a designed checklist. The checklist includes demographic characteristic questions (age, sex, marital status, and education level) as well as questions evaluating the knowledge of individuals about the probiotics. Statistical analyses were done by SPSS, Software, Ver. 16.0.  The total number of the current study respondents was 400 with the mean age of 36.3 ± 12.8 and a majority of them were males (53.4%, n: 212), married (54.8%), and had an academic position (46.2%). Probiotic knowledge was significantly linked with marital status and those who were at the position of assistant professor (p<0.05). There was a significant association between the consumption of probiotic dairy products and education level (p<0.05), as the highest percentages of participants who consumed dairy products were assistants and associated professors (89.2% and89.1%, respectively).  In this study, although the majority of the participants were aware of the presence of beneficial microorganisms in probiotics dairy products, they did not consume adequate amounts of dairy products and dairy-based probiotics. According to the information obtained from this study, there is a need for further education and promotion of the students in regards to the definition, oral benefits, and sources of probiotics.