INVESTIGATION ON NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF STUDENTS IN A MEDICAL COLLEGE AND A NORMAL UNIVERSITY IN KUNMING

[Objective] To understand nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of medical students and normal students in Kunming, so as to provide reference for future nutrition education. [Methods] 557 subjects (278 medical students and 279 normal students) were randomly selected and investigated with questionnaires about their nutritional knowledge, atti- tude and practice. [Results] Most of the subjects lacked a better understanding of nutritional knowledge and had some unhealthy dietary practices. However, they had a positive intention to learn nutritional knowledge and correct unwholesome dietary practice. Medical students had a better cognitive to nutritive value of carrots, and had more cereal food than that of normal students (P﹤0.01). The normal students had a better cognitive to nutritive value of animal foods than the medical students (P﹤ 0.05). Medical students had a better understanding on the relationships between anemia, hypertension, obesity, food variety than that of normal students ( P ﹤ 0.05) , and students who ate breakfast every day among medical students accounted for 70.5%, and among normal students accounted for 49.5%. [Conclusion] It is necessary to develop and implement effective nutrition education of college students, strengthen nutrition education through multiple channels, enhance the nutritional knowledge of students, focus on nutrition intervention measures and urge students to form a good dietary practice.