Brief, effective experience to increase first-year medical students’ nutrition awareness

Abstract

Background: Wellness is an important concept for medical students to learn, both for their own health and for their patients. Since nutrition is an essential part of one's wellness that can positively or negatively impact one's health, it is important for medical students to learn approaches to nutritional wellness. Studies have shown that physicians' nutrition attitudes and clinical practices are positively correlated with their dietary practices. Objective: Here, we describe a brief nutrition-based education experience for first-year students offered at the start of the medical school curriculum that is designed to increase their nutrition awareness. Design: The nutrition experience involved five components: 1) having students complete three 24-hour food recalls; 2) comparing their recalls to nutrient standards; 3) emphasizing strategies that include simple, nutritionally sound food choices and preparation; 4) surveying students on their implementation of personal healthy nutritional strategies; and 5) requesting future recommendations for modifying the educational experience. Results: Most students' diets did not meet the recommended dietary levels for several nutrients, and these deficiencies corresponded to specific food group inadequacies. Forty percent of the students responded to a three-month follow-up survey. Of these students, 46% implemented one of the presented strategies to improve their food intake. Most changes included the addition or deletion of a particular food. Seventy-three percent recommended repeating the program in the future. Conclusions: We demonstrate that a brief 2.5-hour nutrition wellness experience can increase nutrition awareness and promote dietary change in incoming medical students. Many felt that the experience was valuable and recommended offering a similar experience to future classes.

Evaluating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on First-Year Medical Student Nutrition

“…Our study showed significant decreases in intake of both calcium and vitamin D. We found a significant decrease in calcium consumption for MS1 students in 2018-19 from 804 mg to 734 mg. These findings are congruent with the Coleman et al study, which demonstrated that students were already failing to meet the daily recommended value of either micronutrient prior to the COVID-19 pandemic [ 15 ]. While the RDI of calcium is 1300 mg, the students in the Coleman study had an intake of 899 mg.…”

“…Prior studies such as Coleman et al have demonstrated that medical students do not meet the recommended daily food intake value of 1600-2400 calories for women, and 2000-3000 calories for men [ 14 , 15 ]. Of the 193 students who completed the Coleman survey, students on average were meeting 93.4% of the daily value.…”

Factors That Influence the Use of Dietary Supplements among the Students of Wroclaw Medical University in Poland during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It indicates the need for good dietary programs and education from an early stage of medical studies irrespective of the major. As it was found in the study of Coleman et al [ 30 ], education in the first year of medical studies changed their dietary choices for the better and it may also impact the possibility to advise patients on nutrition in the future. A recent review [ 31 ] also showed that a variety of teaching approaches provided students with many benefits which are particularly important since an unhealthy diet is the cause of about 20% of deaths.…”

Nutritional Awareness of Undergraduate Healthcare Students

“…A study conducted by Rababah et al (2019) found that 76.9% of students reported receiving no information on nutrition awareness and most students (67.5%) expressed an interest in learning about health. The results of this study addressed the need for health literacy and health awareness in colleges and universities and highlighted the physical, psychological, psychiatric, social, and reproductive health issues that plague college students (Coleman et al, 2021). It is important for college health centers to provide healthy food education for students, which could be accomplished with the REAPS tool used in conjunction with toolkits such as MyPlate (Segal-Isaacson et al, 2022;USDA, 2022).…”

“…Nutrition education programs are designed to raise nutrition awareness with the aim of promoting healthy eating (Rababah et al, 2019). Coleman et al (2021) found that students experienced significant improvements in nutrition awareness through nutrition education in college. Improvements in eating behavior and intentions were also seen, but more promisingly, improvements led to decreases in BMI and waist circumference.…”