Survey on the Nutrition Knowledge Level of Turkish Physicians: Ankara as a Sample

Abstract

Several studies indicate that physicians have little nutrition knowledge. The survey was carried out to determine the nutrition knowledge of physicians in Turkey. The research data were collected by means of a questionnaire including multiple-choice questions. The study was conducted among randomly selected 210 physicians (male: 137, female: 73) working in various hospitals in Ankara. The average score of the nutrition knowledge score of the physicians was 9.6±2.6. According to this result, the average rate of the correct responses was 48.1%±13.1. The responses of the physicians to the nutrition knowledge questions were evaluated by the method of scoring them. It was found that the nutrition knowledge level of 60.0% of the physicians was mediocre, that of 33.8% was poor and that of 6.2% was good. More nutrition subjects should be included in the curriculums of medical education and later, in-service training should support them.