Survey correlations: proficiency and adequacy of nutrition training of medical students.
OBJECTIVE
The majority of graduating US medical students reported inadequate nutrition training over the past decade. This trend could in part be due to the lack of valid measures to assess the relationship between adequacy of nutrition training and proficiency on nutrition topics deemed essential. The study's objective was to test the hypothesis that self-reported nutrition proficiency is positively correlated with the perceived adequacy (quality, quantity, coverage and importance) of nutrition training of University of Washington medical students.


METHODS
Cross-sectional e-mail survey of 1st to 4th year medical students (n = 708), including a survey prompt and three e-mail follow-up measures. To reduce and interpret the survey data, principal components analysis was employed, followed by Varimax rotation with Kaiser normalization. To assess internal consistency reliability, alpha (alpha) of nutrition proficiency items and factors was determined.


RESULTS
A 44.5% response rate was achieved (n = 315 respondents). The 31-item questionnaire was reduced to 6 factors, explaining 60.2% of the total variance (alpha = 0.947). Self reported nutrition proficiency was positively correlated with the perceived quality, quantity and coverage of nutrition training in all 6 essential nutrition factors or topics determined after factor analysis (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Quality and coverage may be effective gauges of adequacy of nutrition training and related nutrition proficiency in medical education. Current national medical education evaluation measures focus on the quantity of nutrition instruction. The lowest reported proficiency topics; nutrition and disease management, micronutrients and complementary and alternative medicine are recommended for particular curricular emphasis.
Mihalynuk
Tanis V
TV
Interdisciplinary Nutritional Sciences Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. tanismih@cancerboard.ab.ca
Coombs
John B
JB
Rosenfeld
Michael E
ME
Scott
Craig S
CS
Knopp
Robert H
RH
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires