Knowledge, Lifestyle, and Attitudes Toward Nutritional Assessment and Counseling Among Physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia: Implications for Healthcare Quality and Interdisciplinary Practice-A Cross-Sectional Study Across Multiple Regions of Saudi Arabia.

Background/Objectives: Nutrition is essential in healthcare and rehabilitation, although the readiness of physiotherapists in Saudi Arabia to integrate nutritional assessment and counseling remains ambiguous. This study aimed to assess their knowledge of nutrition, lifestyle choices, and attitudes towards incorporating nutrition into practice. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 500 licensed physiotherapists practicing across Saudi Arabia and used a culturally adapted questionnaire derived from previously validated instruments. The survey assessed background characteristics, nutrition knowledge, nutritional lifestyle, and attitudes toward integrating nutrition into physical therapy. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Results: Participants demonstrated moderate nutrition knowledge (59.68 ± 17.25) and favorable nutritional lifestyles (20.67 ± 3.79), with positive attitudes toward integrating nutritional assessment and counseling into their practice (13.63 ± 4.64). A significant positive correlation was observed between nutritional lifestyle scores and nutrition integration scores (r = 0.29, p < 0.01). Because lower nutritional lifestyle scores indicate healthier lifestyles and lower integration scores reflect greater integration, participants with healthier nutritional lifestyles tend to show greater nutrition integration. Nutrition knowledge scores were negatively correlated with integration scores (r = -0.37, p < 0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis identified professional seniority, nutritional lifestyle, and nutrition knowledge as significant predictors of nutrition integration score, explaining 22.8% of the variance (F = 29.24, R2 = 0.22, p = 0.001). Conclusions: Saudi physiotherapists showed positive attitudes toward integrating nutritional assessment and counseling into the practice, but their nutrition knowledge was moderate, with knowledge gaps. Nutrition integration correlated significantly with nutritional lifestyle scores, nutrition knowledge, and professional seniority. The findings indicate the need to improve nutrition-related competencies and interdisciplinary collaboration in rehabilitation practice.