HWiS Poll results: how do your nutritional and dietary needs affect you?
In July 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex wanted to better understand how specific nutritional and dietary requirements affect people's lives.
Poll results
Healthwatch in Sussex received responses from 166 people about their experiences of living with nutritional or dietary requirements.
- 43.4% respondents had food allergies or intolerances, 33.7% experienced
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and 25.3% had Diabetes. - People highlighted the impacts on their life, with 47.9% lacking options when
eating out, 28.8% struggling to source food for their dietary needs, and 28.2% unable to access support for their dietary needs. - The most common ways respondents found information about dietary
conditions or nutritional needs were a general online search (74.1%), the NHS website (50%), and via their GP practice (27.7%). - 32 respondents (19.3%) had used NHS nutrition or dietetic services recently.
Experiences were generally positive, but the greatest challenges were lack of flexible appointment times and long waits for appointments. Other respondents had low awareness of these NHS services or how to access them.
It would be better for my condition to be better understood by medical professionals giving information about nutrition to me.
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Read the full results with targeted data and respondent feedback.
Poll results: how do your nutritional and dietary needs affect you?
