Nutrition Literacy and Health Status of Medical Students: A Systematic Review

Health literacy is considered a fundamental ability needed when making difficult health-related decisions. Also, people with nutrition literacy can convert nutrition messages into knowledge and tend to make healthier eating choices. This systematic review aimed to summarize the literature on nutrition and health literacy to enhance the medical students’ knowledge about the importance of health and nutrition literacy.
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In this study systematic review, research articles published in English were reviewed using relevant terms in PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and CINAHL databases. The articles were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, repetition, purpose, and relevance to the topic. Furthermore, the “Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments” checklist was used to select and evaluate the reviewed articles.

A total of 2978 articles were reviewed. Ultimately, 15 articles were approved and included in the study. Six studies were conducted on nursing students, six were on students of pharmacy and other clinical fields, and three studies examined medical students. The average nutrition and food literacy scores were sufficient, whereas the nutrition knowledge score was moderate.

In the reviewed studies, nutrition literacy is evaluated to be at a low to medium level. Most students have insufficient nutrition knowledge.