Investigation on medical students' knowledge, attitude and practice of nutrition

Objective To investigate the medical students' knowledge, attitude and practices(KAP) of nutrition, provide the necessary information for nutrition education, and improve their own health and future participation in medical nutrition therapy. Methods A random cluster survey of 800 students in some Medical School was performed using questionnaire survey approach. Results Girls got higher scores than boys on nutritional knowledge(K), attitude(A) and practice(P) separately as well as the total KAP score(t=2.272, 2.035, 2.435, 3.096,all P0.05). Medical students in seniors years did better than the juniors on the K, A, and KAP(t=6.017, 2.018, 4.441,all P0.05); and there was no statistical difference of P among different grades(t=0.153,P=0.2265). Students from the urban area had higher scores than those from the rural area on K, A and KAP(t=2.138, 11.561, 2.800,all P0.05), while there was no statistical difference of P among students from different areas(t=0.061,P=0.0585). There was relationship between K and eating snacks, dining out and having breakfast every day, and A between having breakfast every day. Conclusions The medical students lack nutritional knowledge,their own nutritional status is poor, but the attitude towards nutrition is relatively positive. More nutrition education should be given to boys, students in lower grades, and rural students.