Medical students' dietary habits: Motivations and barriers to reaching health goals

It has been well reported that medical students do not follow healthy diets overall. Effectively guiding patients to change their health behavior is a crucial skill for primary care providers and family physicians. Our objective was to investigate medical students' dietary decision-making, including the motivations and barriers that influence their dietary choices.

A self-administered online questionnaire was conducted among preclinical students at one allopathic medical school in the United States. The survey was comprised of questions about students' dietary goals, habits, and the barriers they face in reaching their nutritional ideals. Trends in the percentage of students who selected each survey answer choice were interpreted.

Of the 363 preclinical students provided with the optional survey, 71 (19.6%) chose to participate. The participants' dietary decisions were predominately driven by convenience. Most students wanted to eat nutritiously to support their well-being but had been eating less healthily since starting medical school due to financial limitations and limited time. Approximately half (46.5%, 33/71) of the participants stated that they would buy the in-house food provided at the medical school campus more often if it better matched their dietary goals, but 36.6% (26/71) would only do so if the new foods were affordable compared to competitor's prices.

There is an opportunity to help medical students meet their dietary goals, which are negatively impacted by personal and structural academic barriers. Further research is needed on the obstacles that institutions face in offering healthy, affordable options to medical students.