Assessing the Effect of a College-Level Nutrition Course on Kinesiology Student Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess nutrition knowledge among Kinesiology students in order quantify student understanding of fundamental nutrition principles and determine if differences were significant between students who had completed a college-level nutrition course versus those who had not. It was hypothesized that students who completed a college nutrition course would score significantly higher in each categorical domain as well as total knowledge. Kinesiology students were surveyed utilizing a validated instrument to assess fundamental nutrition knowledge. Specific emphasis was placed on recruiting students who had completed a college-level nutrition course. Question items were categorized into four distinct categorical domains including: sources of nutrients, dietary recommendations, identification of optimal dietary choices, and awareness of diet-disease relationships. Students who had previously completed a college-level nutrition course (n = 62) scored significantly higher than those who had not (n = 46) for dietary recommendations (7.36 ± 1.92 and 6.61 ± 1.93, p = .047), sources of nutrients (40.16 ± 9.65 and 35.72 ± 9.63, p = .02), and total score (57.48 ± 13.11 and 51.07 ± 13.48, p = .014). There was no significant difference between groups associated with dietary choices (p = .174) and diet-disease relationship (p = .126). Overall, students who completed a college-level nutrition course attained higher knowledge scores than those who did not. While there was a difference in knowledge, total percent correct answers for both groups were well below the established cutoff by content raters indicating a need to further assess pedagogical content within nutrition courses and its articulation to knowledge questionnaires.