TY - JOUR AU - Yousef, Mira AU - Khandalavala, Birgit PY - 2022/07/12 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The Diet Quality of Medical Students in the United States During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic JF - International Journal of Medical Students JA - Int J Med Stud VL - 10 IS - 2 SE - Original Article DO - 10.5195/ijms.2022.1039 UR - https://ijms.info/IJMS/article/view/1039 SP - 158-164 AB - <p><strong>Background:</strong> Medical students report lacking the knowledge to conduct nutrition counseling for patients and practice good dietary quality in their personal life. This cross-sectional study describes the dietary quality of medical students at one Midwestern College of medicine during the early COVID-19 pandemic in the United States of America.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> Cross-sectional study based on a survey applied to medical students (n=102) during spring 2020. We used the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants–Shortened (REAP-S) to assess dietary quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The response rate was 27%. The primary outcome was to obtain total mean REAP-S scores and identify variables related to poor diet quality.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> A mean REAP-S score of 30.5, SD=3.9 (range 13-39) was obtained (67% of ideal dietary quality). Body weight remained the same for 54.9% of students, 25.7% gained weight, and 18.8% lost weight during the late spring of 2020. Students with BMI &lt; 24.9 kg/m2 (mean REAP-S score of 31.6±3.6) had a significantly better dietary quality (p &lt; 0.001) compared to students with BMI &gt; 25 kg/m2 (mean REAP-S score of 28.9±3.9). Students with a self-reported “less healthy” diet (mean REAP-S=28.2±3.3) had significantly worse dietary quality (p &lt; 0.001) compared to those who either maintained a healthy diet (mean REAP-S=31.1±3.8) or improved diet (mean REAP-s=31.9±3.6). Of note, 89.2% of students indicated that they want to improve their diet.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The dietary quality of participants was found to be sub-optimal during the early COVID-19 pandemic, potentially impacting our future medical workforce's long-term health adversely.</p> ER -