title: Impact of learning nutrition on medical students: their eating habits, knowledge and confidence in addressing dietary issues of patients.
abstract: Nutrition is an important component in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases and is a cornerstone in strategies for disease prevention and health promotion. Despite the acknowledged importance of nutrition, there is evidence to indicate that the nutrition training of medical students is inadequate in both quality and quantity. The study aimed to know the dietary/eating habits of medical students, assess their knowledge on nutrition and to assess their confidence in addressing the dietary issues of patients. It was a cross-sectional study conducted on final year medical students, interns and postgraduate students of Moti Lal Nehru Government Medical College, Allahabad. The sampling was purposive and a total of 218 participated in the study voluntarily. Overall 55% of the students were less knowledgeable and only 45% of them were more knowledgeable. Most (62%) postgraduates were more knowledgeable (p < 0.001). Majority of them (89.9%) were having healthy eating habits. There was no association between their healthy habits and more knowledge (p > 0.340). Only 45.4% of them were confident in assessing the diet of patients and 44% of them were confident in recommending change of diet in patients. However this study shows no association between increase in the level of knowledge and confidence levels of the students (p > 0.339 and p > 0.109) suggesting that we need to incorporate innovative teaching methods to increase their confidence. Most students (79%) said that the medical curriculum was either just enough or not enough in preparing them to deal with the dietary issues of patients and 55% of them were of the opinion that the faculty should be trained in nutrition. The study results intend to stimulate active consideration of proper role of nutrition learning in medical education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, MLN Medical College, Allahabad.
authors.forename: Shama
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.forename: Shraddha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dwivedi
authors.forename: Maroof A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D004501:Education, Medical; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult