Abstract
Objective: To evaluate a nutrition curriculum and explore the influence of medical students' own nutrition practices on its impact. Methods: An anonymous survey was given to first-year medical students attending a required course immediately prior to and 2 weeks after a 2-hour interactive nutrition curriculum intervention in a large private urban medical school in New York, New York. Main outcomes included self-reported nutrition counseling confidence, ability to assess diet, and nutrition knowledge measured using 4-point Likert scales. Results: One hundred eleven students completed surveys pre-curriculum (69%) and 121 completed them post-curriculum (75%). The authors found overall pre-post differences in dietary assessment ability (2.65 vs 3.05, P < .001) and counseling confidence (1.86 vs 2.22, P < .001). In addition to the curricular impact, students' nutrition-related behaviors and attitudes were positively associated with outcomes. Conclusions and Implications: A nutrition curriculum for medical students improves students' nutrition counseling-related confidence, knowledge, and skills even when controlling for personal nutrition-related behaviors.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 653-657 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2012 |
Keywords
- Medical education
- Nutritional assessment
- Nutritional surveys
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Nutrition and Dietetics