Nutrition knowledge for obesity management among health care professional students.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine the nutrition knowledge of obesity management among various health care professional students. The subjects included 115 graduate level nursing (n = 23), nutrition (n = 25), occupational therapy (n = 40), and physical therapy (n = 27) students at Texas Woman's University, Houston. Subjects answered 20 questions to determine their knowledge of the nutrition principles of obesity management. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of ranks was used to evaluate the differences in mean scores among the 4 groups. A significant difference (p < 0.05) was found to exist between nutrition students and each of the other groups. No difference was found between nursing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy students.;Results of this study indicate allied health care programs are not currently educating students regarding nutrition principles of obesity management. Because of the importance of nutrition in obesity management, students need additional training to be effective participants in the multidisciplinary team.