Objective: Despite the increasing prevalence of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases, nutrition education has been historically lacking in medical education. With increasing access to effective diet-related chronic disease treatments, physicians have an increasingly important role to play in nutrition counseling. We evaluated the attitudes and comfort related to nutrition and nutrition counseling among a cohort of internal medicine residents at a large academic training program.
Methods: An online survey was administered to internal medicine residents on nutrition attitudes and counseling practices using a previously validated questionnaire. The survey was open for responses following an outpatient didactic session in March 2023. Responses were captured using Qualtrics and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: The survey was distributed to 70 trainees. Of the 40 residents from all levels of training who completed the survey 60% reported having received no prior nutrition training in their educational background. Residents generally strongly agreed that nutritional assessments and counseling should be included in any routine appointments, just like diagnosis and treatment of patients, and that physicians can have an effect on patient's dietary behavior if they take the time to discuss the problem. Residents also strongly agreed that most physicians are not adequately trained to discuss nutrition effectively with patients and had low comfort with nutrition counseling across all areas.
Conclusions: Internal medicine residents recognize nutrition counseling as a priority, but report lacking education and comfort to effectively provide adequate nutrition education to patients. This highlights the need for more nutrition education in all levels of general medical training.
Keywords: Medical education; medical training; nutrition; obesity; residents.