Nutrition knowledge and attitude in medical students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2017–2018

OBJECTIVES: In this cross-sectional study among 220 medical students we aimed to determine the nutritional knowledge and attitude of medical students through clinical training courses (externship and internship) of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. A nutritional knowledge questionnaire included 51 questions was used to determine the correct, perceived and accuracy of knowledge of the participant in different aspects of nutrition sciences. The nutrition attitude questionnaire included 30 questions. Both questionnaires were confirmed in terms of the validity and reliability for assessing nutritional knowledge and attitude in this sample of Iranian medical students. Nutritional knowledge and attitude were calculated as percentage of correct or appropriate responses. RESULTS: The correct knowledge was not significantly different among externs and interns (68.20 ± 7.50% and 67.87 ± 6.04% respectively, p = 0.729). Results showed that most of the participants (49.61% of externs and 57.14% of inters) had a poor nutritional knowledge, significantly varied by age (p = 0.035). The attitude index of the subjects was not significantly different among externs and interns (73.36 ± 9.42% and 74.59 ± 9.20%, p = 0.335). Most students (92.7%) had a very appropriate attitude toward nutrition, significantly varied by sex (p = 0.010). These findings indicate that there are multiple deficiencies in nutrition knowledge of medical students.