Evaluation of nutritional habits of Aydin ​​Adnan Menderes University Medical faculty 1ST grade and 6th grade students

Background and aim: It is possible to protect and improve health with an adequate and balanced diet. In our country, malnutrition is a major social problem. It is known that very serious problems are experienced especially in the researches about adults' eating habits. In this study, it was aimed to reveal the nutritional information, nutritional habits and nutritional problems of medical faculty students and to evaluate the effect of medical faculty education on nutritional knowledge level. Materials and Method: Our descriptive research was carried out between August 2019 and December 2019 at Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine by applying face-to-face questionnaire with a total of 280 participants. Our questionnaire consists of 13 questions about socio-demographic information and 26 questions about eating habits. Results: 51.60% (n=145) of the participants in the study were male and 67.62% (n=190) were first year medical students. The average age of students is 20.44 ± 2.60 years. The BMI mean of the 6th grades (22.75±3.37) was higher than the 1st grades (21.79 ± 3.25) (p: 0.014). The proportion of those with regular breakfast habits was higher in the 1st grades (61.05%) than in the 6th grades (42.86%) (p: 0.012). At breakfast, cheese, olives, eggs, etc. the rate of food consumers is higher in the 1st grades (73.51%) than the 6th grades (36.47%) (p <0.001). The rate of doing sports or exercising was higher in the 1st grades (45.56%) than in the 6th grades (32.97%) (p: 0.031). The number of sports days in the 1st grades (3.14 ± 1.56) was higher than the 6th grades (2.36 ± 1.50) (p: 0.010). Conclusion: There is no a direct relationship between education level, lifestyle and nutritional habits of medical students. Despite the increase in educational level, unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle are more prominent in the 6th grade students. This could be due to the tiring and stressful environment of the medical school and the lack of knowledge in students and studies are needed in this regard. The amount of tea consumed daily in the 6th grades (3.54 ± 2.86) was higher than the 1st grades (2.34 ± 1.71) (p <0.001). The amount of coffee consumed daily in the 6th grades (2.42 ± 1.58) was higher than the 1st grades (1.71 ±, 95) (p: 0.001). Keywords: exercise, medicine, nutrition, sedentary, student