Nutrition Coverage in Medical Licensing Examinations in Germany: An Analysis of Six Nationwide Exams

Abstract

The state of nutrition education in medicine is inadequate, with nutrition-related topics being poorly integrated into lectures. Most medical students receive only a few contact hours of nutrition instruction during their entire time at medical school. Identifying potential barriers that may explain the paucity of nutritional knowledge in medical students is thus of paramount importance. The extent of nutrition coverage in the second part of Germany’s nationwide medical licensing exam is currently unknown. We addressed this issue and assessed nutrition content, as well as students’ scores, in this pivotal test prior to their graduation. We performed a post hoc analysis of six nationwide medical licensing examinations (2018–2020) undertaken by 29,849 medical students and screened 1920 multiple-choice questions for nutrition-related content. Nutrition-related questions accounted for a minority of the questions (2.1%, n = 40/1920). A considerable number of the questions (n = 19) included only a single nutrition-related answer option that was frequently incorrect and served as a distractor. About 0.5% of questions were entirely nutrition related. Despite undeniable barriers, the inclusion of additional nutrition-related examination questions could serve as an incentive to engage students and medical schools in enhancing medical nutrition education. The recently published competence-oriented learning objective catalog in Germany could play a pivotal role in this context, leading to better recognition of nutrition-related topics in medical education.