Education regarding and adherence to recommended nutrition guidelines among dental students

Abstract

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) were developed to reduce or prevent many types of chronic illness, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Healthcare provider recommendations may be influenced by understanding of and adherence to the DGA, which may be incorporated into provider training, medical and dental clinical curricula—although few studies have evaluated adherence to the DGA among dental students. This approved retrospective study of voluntary student responses from a first-year dental school nutrition course included a short dietary and exercise survey administered as part of the DGA learning module. A total of N = 299 students completed the voluntary nutrition survey, yielding a response rate of 91.4%. Daily fruit and vegetable intake, dairy and whole grain servings among UNLV-SDM students were significantly lower than the DGA recommendations but higher than U.S. averages for 18–30-year-olds—although neither group met DGA recommendations. This study represents one of the first to evaluate the dietary intake of U.S. dental students for comparison with the DGA for positive health behaviors. These data demonstrate a lack of adherence to the DGA among highly educated dental students and the need for the curricular inclusion of diet and nutrition into the dental school curriculum.