Background: Dietary fiber refers to a wide range of non-digestible plant-derived dietary constituents such as non-starch polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, lignin, and similar polysaccharides. The objective was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice related to the intake of dietary fibers among people in Upper Egypt.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey study among Egyptian participants from Upper Egypt (Quena, Sohag and Assiut). A pre-structured Arabic questionnaire was utilized to examine the research participants' awareness, practice, and attitudes on dietary fibers.
Results: The study included 1156 individuals. The majority of the participants were females (68.6%), aged 20 to 40 years (69.4%), had high-school education (62.0%), and living in urban residence (94.0%). The majority of the participants had morbid obesity (73.6%). The majority had bread as the main dietary source of dietary fibers (74.7%). The majority had good knowledge regarding the health advantages of dietary fibers, such as preventing constipation (89.4%), preventing bowel cancer (87.8%), and preventing obesity (85.7%). The majority were eating outside served food (71.4%) and prefer the usage of white bread (92.6) and fried potato (88.2%) in fast food and outside served food. The majority usually eat vegetables and fruits with their skins (83.9%) and prefer to eat foods rich in dietary fiber (77.1%). The Internet was the main (90.1%) source of information about dietary fibers.
Conclusions: The majority had good knowledge about dietary fibers and preferred to eat them. However, the majority were eating outside served food. The findings underscore the importance of educating the public about the hazards of fast food.