Nutrition Communication and Dietary Practices of Medical Students at Kenyan Public Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

As future healthcare providers, medical students are supposed to model and advocate for healthy eating. Recognizing this, the study addresses the paradox of suboptimal dietary habits observed among this population despite their medical training. The study is based on the Social Cognitive Theory and the Health Belief Model. It determines the influence of nutrition communication on the dietary practices of final-year medical students enrolled in nutrition programs at Kenyan public tertiary institutions. A descriptive cross-sectional correlational design was adopted, targeting final-year nutrition students across selected public tertiary institutions in Kenya. By use of stratified random sampling, a total of 422 respondents were selected, with data collected through structured, self-administered questionnaires. The instruments were pretested for reliability and validity. Descriptive and inferential statistics tested the study’s hypotheses. Most of the students were female (81.7%), living off campus (61.8%), from middle-income backgrounds (52.2%), and receiving a monthly income of Kshs. 0 - 5000 (84.5%). The mean Body Mass Index of the respondents was 22.47, falling within the normal nutrition ranges. Most of the respondents did not have a meal plan (78.8%) and did not have any specific dietary preferences (78.6%). While knowledge was strong in core areas of nutrition, there is a clear need to enhance awareness in culturally specific nutrition practices and food literacy skills. Dietary practices were significantly and positively associated with all the independent variables examined. There was a strong relationship between nutrition communication strategies and dietary practices among the respondents (r = 0.691, p = 0.001). The model yielded an R value of 0.715, indicating a strong positive correlation between the set of independent variables and dietary practices. Nearly 51.1% of the variance in dietary practices (R 2 = 0.511) means that over half of the variation in dietary behavior can be attributed to the combined effects of nutrition communication strategies, sources, content, channels, and individual factors. The null hypotheses were rejected except for nutrition communication channel, which was not significantly associated with dietary practices among the respondents. In conclusion, communication content, channels, sources, strategies, and individual factors around nutrition, if well implemented, are more likely to improve the dietary behaviour of medical students in public tertiary institutions.