Resident Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Springfield, Illinois, United States
Background: Nutrition education during medical training is variable and not well studied. Childhood obesity affects 14.9 million children and adolescents, and higher among patients of lower socioeconomic background, predominantly Black children. The long-term complications of obesity are well-known and include diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease. Homes with food insecurity (FI) have an increased risk obesity due to external eating and child snacking. FI is common in our resident clinic population. Objective: Develop a curriculum to increase pediatric residents’ knowledge, skills and confidence to counsel families on nutrition, including those with FI. Design/Methods: The nutrition literacy project involves 3-part education series with 2 lecture-style didactic sessions and an interactive workshop. The lectures are given by our gastroenterology and endocrinology registered dieticians (RD). The didactic portion of the series focuses on: 1) interpretation of nutrition labels, 2) providing effective family-centered education, 3) familiarizing locations where families with FI shop, 4) creating nutritional meals with limited resources. The workshop focused on applying skills and knowledge to prepare a meal for a family of 4 with $20. Our RDs' will evaluate these meals for nutritional density and quality. 17 participants complete the pre-education survey. 94% rated their confidence less than 3 on a Likert scale of 1-5 for their confidence to educate patients on healthy nutrition. 82% scored a confidence of less than 3 to read nutrition labels. 82% could not identify areas where families with FI would shop. Residents will be given the same survey at the end of the education series to evaluate change in confidence following implementation of our nutrition literacy project. This last part of the education series is scheduled to complete in December 2023, and all data analysis will be done by January 2024.
