The study of knowledge and attitude Status of students in Yazd University of Medical Sciences about the Role of Nutrition in Cancer 2014

Due to the important role of medical graduates in disease prevention, having awareness and knowledge in this field seems very important. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge and attitude of this group of students on the role of nutrition in cancer.
This descriptive study that lasted from September 2014 until the end of December. 400 students of the Yazd medical university were selected and separated due to their educational fields randomly and then a questionnaire containing 53 questions on the knowledge and attitudes about nutrition and cancer was given to each of them. Once they were completed, the data was analyzed by SPSS version 16 using chi-square test, Student t-test and one way ANOVA.
The mean age of subjects was 24.25± 2.06 years and 273 patients (68.2%) were women while 113 (28.2%) were male. The average total knowledge score was obtained 16.23 ± 4.08 and the average score of knowledge among women and men were respectively 16.45±4.12 and 15.64±3.82 and the differences were significant (p =0. 05). The difference between mean knowledge score was significantly different between the different educational levels (p =0. 01) and additionally the average total attitude score was 14.96 ± 3.07 while attitude mean score of men and women (14.74 ± 2.94 vs. 15.45 ± 3.41) showed a significant difference (p≤0. 05).
Overall, knowledge and attitudes score of the student's were not ideal and promotion of education on this issue is essential.