Learn First, Practice Second Approach To Increase Health Professionals' Nutrition-Related Knowledge, Attitudes And Self-Efficacy

Health professionals generally have positive attitudes towards the role of nutrition in medicine, but limited knowledge and low self-efficacy for incorporating it into routine care. To assess the effectiveness of a "learn first, practice second" intervention on the nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy of multidisciplinary health professionals, the present approach consisted of 16weeks of online education and 2weeks of cultural immersion in Tuscany, Italy. Data was captured via online surveys at Baseline, Post-education, Post-immersion, and Follow Up. Repeated measures ANOVA with irregular spacing was used, followed by Dunnett's or Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel testing. Results indicate significantly improved participant nutrition knowledge (nonzero correlation p=.0136, means score p=.0075) and self-efficacy (T0-T1 p<.0001, T0-T2 p<.0001, T0-T3 p=.0002), with differences in attitude trending towards significance (p=.0764). Findings from this study suggest that a combination of online education and hands on learning experiences can be beneficial for increasing health professionals' nutrition knowledge, confidence, and potentially attitude.