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. 2024 Jun 13:15598276241261654.
doi: 10.1177/15598276241261654. Online ahead of print.

Enhancing Healthcare Professionals' Culinary Skills, Food Management, Counseling Confidence, and Mediterranean Diet Adherence Through a Culinary Medicine Boot Camp: A Pilot Implementation Program (PIP)

Affiliations

Enhancing Healthcare Professionals' Culinary Skills, Food Management, Counseling Confidence, and Mediterranean Diet Adherence Through a Culinary Medicine Boot Camp: A Pilot Implementation Program (PIP)

Joan Fernando et al. Am J Lifestyle Med. .

Abstract

Awareness of nutrition's role in chronic diseases is rising, demanding guidance on the diet-disease relationship. Nutritional practices become crucial for prevention, prompting healthcare professionals (HCP) to respond. The present study assessed a Culinary Medicine (CM) program's impact on HCP's Mediterranean diet adherence, food and diet therapy knowledge, food management skills, culinary proficiency, and counseling confidence. A mixed-methods pilot implementation program (PIP) engaged 20 HCP from Hospital Clinic Barcelona at the Alícia Foundation kitchen-lab. Four 8-hour CM sessions, held weekly, covered culinary knowledge emphasizing disease prevention and care. All twenty participants; 86% women, 14% men, 86% aged above 40, 14% between 31 and 39 years, 71% nurses, 7% medical doctors and 21% other occupation, completed the course and fourteen fulfilled pre-and post-program questionnaires. Notably, 86% had prior nutrition training, while only 14% had culinary training. After the program, there was significant improvement in Mediterranean diet adherence (P < .05). Perceptions on dietary advice usefulness, patient-transferable knowledge acquisition, cooking techniques, and personal cooking skills confidence showed post-course improvements. This study underscores the potential of hands-on CM training in HCP nutrition education, influencing their culinary knowledge. Future studies with larger samples is needed to elucidate CM training's impact on HCP and potential public health benefits.

Keywords: behavioral medicine; interprofessional education; medical education; nutrition; preventive medicine; public health; self-efficacy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Timeline of the study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Professionals’ perspective in food and diet therapy counseling pre- and post-program. Percentage of responses is shown.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Professionals’ perspective about their own knowledge in food and diet therapy, pre- and post-program. Percentage of responses is shown.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Professionals’ perspective about nutrition training. Percentage of responses is shown.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Evaluation of course satisfaction at 2 months. Results expressed as Mean and Standard Deviation. Maximum score 5 being strongly agreement, 4 in agreement, 3 uncertain, 2 in disagreement, and 1 strongly disagreement.

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