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Medical education and training
Original research
Cross-sectional questionnaire study to gather the teaching preferences and expectations of UK undergraduate medical students for culinary medicine learning
  1. Jessica Ying-Yi Xie1,
  2. Shoba Poduval1,
  3. Victoria Vickerstaff1,2,
  4. Sophie Park1
  1. 1Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health, University College London, London, UK
  2. 2Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Sophie Park; Sophie.park{at}ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

Aim To determine undergraduate medical students’ teaching preferences and expectations for Culinary Medicine (CM) learning with a view to informing development of a CM course at a UK medical school.

Setting A single, urban UK medical school.

Participants 180 undergraduate medical students.

Study design A cross-sectional questionnaire study collecting quantitative and qualitative (free-text) data.

Methods and outcome measures An online questionnaire consisting of 16 questions of various styles (Likert-type, multiple choice and free-text). Quantitative analysis of multiple choice and Likert-type scale questions was conducted. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse the free-text responses and identify themes.

Results Three core themes related to students’ understanding of CM were identified: (1) ‘CM Learning’: students’ perceived relevance of CM knowledge, perceived relevance of CM to healthcare and their expectations for teaching; (2) ‘The Relationship between Food and Health’: links between diet, social factors and health; and (3) ‘Evidence-based Medicine’: students’ perceptions about scientific principles underlying CM. Quantitative analysis revealed that, although 83% of students felt that learning CM is important for their future clinical practice, 56% felt unable to take a dietary history. 73% of students were dissatisfied with the quality, and 78% were dissatisfied with the quantity, of existing medical school teaching understood to be relevant to CM. Topics that students would like to be taught on a CM course included weight management and portion control. Students felt that problem-based style learning would be the most appropriate method for delivering CM teaching.

Conclusions This study revealed that medical students felt their dietary counsulting skills could be improved with further clinically relevant teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum. Students’ preferences for CM learning have been taken into consideration in the development of a CM course for fifth-year undergraduate students at a UK medical school, which is delivered during their General Practice placement.

  • medical education & training
  • nutrition & dietetics
  • education & training (see medical education & training)
  • primary care
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036410

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JY-YX—main author and lead for the study design, participant recruitment, data collection, and analysis and write-up. SP—chief investigator, co-supervisor and contributed to the study design, data analysis and write-up. ShP—co-supervisor and contributed to the study design, participant recruitment, data analysis and write-up. VV—supervised the statistical analysis and write-up.

    • Funding This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research (NIHR SPCR) grant number 156780. VV receives Seedcorn Funding from the NIHR SPCR.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval Ethical approval to carry out this study was received from UCL Research Ethics Committee (ref.12471/002). Study participants were asked provide informed consent by reading the participant information sheet (PIS) on the first page of the questionnaire and confirming that they fully understood their role in the study and how the data collected would be used. Once consent had been gained, participants were able to proceed to the questionnaire on the next page. Questionnaires were completed anonymously. No participant-identifiable data were collected. The only personal data collected were year of study, but participants could not be identified from the information that they provided.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. The data generated from this study are not suitable for sharing beyond that contained within the report. Further information can be obtained from the corresponding author.