Assessment of Medical Science Students‘ Knowledge Regarding the Role of Nutrition in Prevention or Incidence of Cancer in Tabriz University

Background: Cancer is chronic disease that its prevalence is growing in recent years. Genetics and environmental factors such as energy balance and nutritional habits are involved in its incidence. The nutrition plays an important role in prevention and incidence of cancer due to protective and harmful factors, respectively. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of medical sciences students regarding the role of nutrition in prevention or incidence of cancer in Tabriz University. Methods: This Cross- sectional study conducted on 565 (219 male and 346 Female) senior students of medical sciences. A self-administered questionnaire with two part completed by students. the one was about the demographic characteristics (age, gender, course, level of education, passing nutrition unit through the school and source of nutritional information) and the other one with 22 closed and open questions was about nutritional knowledge. Data analyzed by using descriptive statistics and presented as frequency and percent. Assessment of relationship between nutritional knowledge and demographic variable were used the Pearson correlation and ANOVA. Results: About 13% of students had low level of nutritional knowledge and 41% and 45.6% had acceptable and high level of knowledge, respectively. Relationship between course, level of education, passing nutrition unit through the school and source of nutritional information of students with nutritional knowledge were statistically significant and with age and gender were no statistically significant relationship. Conclusion: Nutritional factors had important role in incidence of cancer and individual knowledge in this regard is important. In our study, medical knowledge of students, as future provider of health information hadn´t adequate level, so using of efficient co-educational materials for increasing their knowledge may be beneficial