| dc.description.abstract | Purpose/Hypothesis: Nutrition plays a vital role in disease prevention and health promotion; however, few health professions curriculums provide adequate nutrition education. The Culinary Medicine program (CM) was developed at Tulane University Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine in 2012 to train health professions students about nutrition and healthy eating practices. Students also participate in a 10-year longitudinal study (Cooking for Health Optimization with Patients, CHOP) to assess learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate both retrospective pre and post Culinary Medicine course CHOP data for 2016-2018 plus pre and post Culinary Medicine course Mediterranean Diet Score data for the spring 2019 cohort of health professions students. Methods/Design: The CM curriculum was first offered in Fort Worth, TX in 2014 and taught by faculty from UNTHSC, TCOM, Texas Christian University (TCU) and Moncrief Cancer Institute. During 2016-2018, students participating in the CM course were assessed pre and post course using the 4-part CHOP survey including demographics, attitudes, dietary habits, and degree of proficiency in competencies related to nutrition/dietary knowledge and application. Additionally, medical and physician assistant students completed the Mediterranean Diet Score sheet both pre and post CM course for the spring 2019 session to determine personal dietary changes during the 6-week period. Study procedures were approved by TCU IRB, and informed consent was obtained. Data were analyzed to meet study objectives (SPSS, p<0.05). Outcome Measures: Assess outcomes of a Culinary Medicine course for improving nutrition and dietary competencies plus personal eating practices of health professions students. Participants: 2016-2018 included a cohort of 77 first and second year medical and 13 physician assistant students (57/female; 33/male) from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. 2019 participants included 26 first and second year medical and 4 physician assistant students (18/female; 12/male) from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. Results: 2026-2018 Results showed that students who participated in the Culinary Medicine course reported greater proficiency in their ability to inform patients about nutrition/dietary competencies: (1) health effects of the Mediterranean, Dash, and low fat diets; (2) weight loss strategies, portion control, food label facts and serving sizes; (3) dietary practices for type 2 diabetes, celiac disease, and food allergies; (4) role of dietary cholesterol/saturated fats in blood lipids; (5) recognizing warning signs/symptoms for eating disorders; and (6) role of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids in disease prevention and heart health (p<0.05). Post course Mediterranean Diet Scores showed that students who participated in the Spring 2019 course reported significant increases in overall diet score. There were significant increases in individual questions answered "yes" in all but one question. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes all showed significant increases in the percent of students who chose "yes". Nuts, fats, and fish categories also showed significant increases. The category that showed no change was meat, and the category that showed the most change was red wine. Total scores also shifted from a 0-8 range to a 4-9 range. In the precourse scoring, 5% of students scored in the 0-3 category and in the post-course scoring, no students scored within this category. In the post- course scoring students increased from below 5% to over 12% scoring in the 6-7 range. There was also a significant increase in students scoring within the 8-9 range (p<0.05). Conclusions: Study results underline the value of dietetics educators providing innovative learning opportunities that integrate nutrition into training for health professions students. | |
