Clinical nutrition: inadequate teaching in medical schools.
OBJECTIVE
The teaching of Clinical Nutrition (CN) is frequently neglected in Medical Schools, though many official institutions strongly recommend its incorporation in their curricula. This work aimed to assess CN knowledge among final-year medical students and final-year dietology diploma students.


RESULTS
We compared the performances of final-year Medical School students who did and who did not take the CN course and final-year dietology students in a computer-based multiple choice question examination related to core CN competencies that primary-care physicians and dieticians should know and be able to put into practice. The medical students who did not take the CN course correctly answered significantly fewer questions compared with those who did and the dietology students (both p < 0.001). There was also a difference in the percentages of who passed the test: students who did not take the course: those 18%; those who did: 77%; dietology students: 76% (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
There are numerous barriers to the incorporation of nutrition in Medical School curricula. The medical school students may have achieved poorer results because dietology students followed nutrition education programs later in their curriculum. Our Medical School has therefore included CN education as part of its internal medicine course since 1998.
Guagnano
M T
MT
Department of Internal Medicine and Aging, University of Chieti, Italy.
Merlitti
D
D
Pace-Palitti
V
V
Manigrasso
M R
MR
Sensi
S
S
D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D004046:Dietetics / Q000193:education*; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires