Improvement in Nutritional Knowledge Conﬁdence and Food-Agency: Outcomes of the First French-Speaking Culinary Medicine Courses Among Medical Students

Q: What problem does the study address regarding medical students and nutrition?

Medical students often lack sufficient nutrition education, leading to confidence gaps and difficulty providing nutritional guidance to patients.

Q: How did the researchers evaluate the Culinary Medicine courses?

They tested the first French-speaking CM courses in two groups of second- to third-year medical students and compared them with a control group, using pre- and post-session questionnaires and score changes.

Q: What were the main outcomes reported after the course?

CM students demonstrated increased confidence in nutrition knowledge and improved Food-Agency (CAFPAS) scores, while the control group showed no change.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Jiven

Medical students often receive insufficient nutrition education, creating confidence gaps and limiting their ability to provide nutritional advice during care. The study evaluated the first French-speaking Culinary Medicine (CM) courses in two groups of second- to third-year medical students versus a control group, using pre- and post-session questionnaires to analyze changes. Results showed CM participants reported improved nutrition knowledge confidence and better food-agency scores, while the control group showed no change.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keywords

Introduction

Sylvie Dodin, MD, MSc, Catherine B ´egin, PhD, and Michel Lucas, PhD 􀀁 Improvement in Nutritional Knowledge Conﬁdence and Food-Agency: Outcomes of the First French-Speaking Culinary Medicine Courses Among Medical Students Abstract: Background: Medical students often lack sufﬁcient nutrition education, leading to conﬁdence gaps and an inability to address this healthcare aspect. Culinary Medicine (CM) courses offer an innovative solution. Methods: We tested the ﬁrst Frenchspeaking CM courses among 2 groups of second-third year medical students, compared to a control group (CG) . The objectives were to assess if an optional CM course could enhance their conﬁdence in both nutritional knowledge and providing nutritional advice, and improve theirfood agency (CAFPAS: Cooking and Food Provisioning Action Scale) . The analysis examines changes in scores by comparing post-session to presession questionnaire measurements. Results: Of the 22 CM students and 6 in CG, predominantly aged 20- 25 years, Caucasian, and female, the majority (CG = 100%, CM = 86.4%) reported <5 hours of and ability to advise about nutrition during the sessions. We also observed improvements in their CAFPAS scores, which measure food agency, while the ‘“Students unanimously acknowledge that nutrition plays a crucial role in maintaining good health, the development of chronic diseases, and their management.”’ nutrition education. Almost all expressed dissatisfaction with nutrition education provided in medicine, both quantitatively and qualitatively. CM students reported signiﬁcantly increased conﬁdence in their knowledge control group exhibited no change in conﬁdence or CAFPAS scores . Conclusion: The ﬁndings highlight CM as practical strategy for integrating nutrition education into medical curricula, offering insights DOI: 10 . 1177/15598276241252612 . Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, CHU of Qu´ebec, Universit´e Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada (SD); Department of Psychology, Universit´e Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada (CB); Research Center CHU de Qu´ebec, Universit´e Laval, Qu´ebec, QC, Canada (ML); and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of medicine, Universit´e Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada (ML) . Address correspondence to: Michel Lucas, Faculty of medicine, Pavillon Ferdinand-Vandry, 1050 Av. de la M´edecine, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. e-mail: michel. lucas. 1@ulaval.ca. For reprints and permissions queries, please visit SAGE’s Web site at [http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav](http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav). Copyright © 2024 The Author(s) . 1 for enhancing future physicians ’knowledge. Keywords: culinary medicine; food agency; culinary skills; selfefﬁcacy; nutrition knowledge; nutrition attitude; nutrition conﬁdence Introduction Globally, inadequate diet quality contributes to premature death.1 Recent evidence highlighted the persistently poor diet quality in the Canadian population, showing minimal improvement in recent years.2 Despite the profound impact of food in human life, medical students lack sufﬁcient training and academic support in this ﬁeld. A systematic review revealed a global deﬁciency in nutritional education for medical students, resulting ina lack of conﬁdence in their knowledge and an inadequate preparation to provide effective nutritional guidance.3 However, the role of nutrition in health is well recognized, both as protective risk factor and treatment for chronic diseases.4-6 The global crises of obesity and type 2 diabetes posed signiﬁcant threats to the health and economies of nations worldwide.7-9 In a landscape where chronic diseases prevailed, envisioning global patient healthcare by physicians became challenging without sufﬁcient education anda substantial interest in nutrition. For instance, guidelines for managing patients with stable ischemic heart disease emphasized the importance of addressing unhealthy behaviorsand promoting lifestyle change

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding medical students and nutrition?

Medical students often lack sufficient nutrition education, leading to confidence gaps and difficulty providing nutritional guidance to patients.

How did the researchers evaluate the Culinary Medicine courses?

They tested the first French-speaking CM courses in two groups of second- to third-year medical students and compared them with a control group, using pre- and post-session questionnaires and score changes.

What were the main outcomes reported after the course?

CM students demonstrated increased confidence in nutrition knowledge and improved Food-Agency (CAFPAS) scores, while the control group showed no change.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Jiven