General physicians' viewpoints towards nutrition course in the medical school: a cross-sectional study

Although nutrition has a very important role in individual and society's health and disease, it has not yet received proper attention in the medical curricula. The objective of this study is to assess the opinions of general physician who worked at private offices in Khorramabad city about nutrition course in Iranian medical schools. In this cross-sectional study the data were collected by posting a self-administrated questionnaire to all GPs who worked at private offices in Khorramabad city of Lorestan province in 2005. Participants were asked to state their opinions about each topic considering the following issues: the appropriate phase for introduction of the topic [in basic sciences, pathophysiology, or clinical training]; need for learning it [low, moderate, high]; and the time devoted to instruction of that topic [inadequate, appropriate, or excessive]. GPs opinions were also surveyed to determine their reference for the topics not included in current nutrition course. Study data were processed by SPSS version 11 software and analyzed using descriptive and Chi-square statistics with a level of significance of less than 0.05. Most of participants believed that clinical teaching periods [clerkship and internship] are the appropriate stage for teaching disease- related or clinical aspects of nutrition. They also valued most of the topics listed in the questionnaire as important learning needs as well as 15 new nutrition topics. Our results clearly indicate that there is a need to include clinical nutritional topics in the clinical training of medical students. New topics such as nutritional consideration in hypelipidemia, and heart disease should also be included in the nutrition education of physicians

effect of zinc and iron supplementation on the status of iron and zinc in the primary schoolchildren

The micronutrient deficiency is an important health problem around the world. Among the micronutrients, iron and zinc deficiencies are the most common. The aim of this study was to find the effects of iron and zinc supplementation, alone or combined, on iron and zinc status of the primary school children. The study was a randomized double-blind clinical trial in which 81 primary schoolchildren of 11 years old were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 were supplemented with iron [20 mg/d], group 2 with zinc [20 mg/d] and group 3 with iron plus zinc [20 mg/d of each] for 4 months. At the beginning and at the end of this intervention, using cell counter, radioimmunoassay, and atomic absorption, hemoglobin plasma ferritin and serum zinc, the children, were measured. Data was analyzed using ANOVA, paired t test, Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Our results showed that using either iron or zinc alone and using both of them together significantly increased the serum zinc level to 4.5 +/- 2.1, 4.5 +/- 2.7 and 3.6 +/- micromole per liter, respectively. Among the 3 groups studied, zinc supplementation had the most benefit for the children who suffered from zinc deficiency [p<0.01]. Using iron complementation alone, resulted in an increase in serum ferritin, while using zinc alone, led to a decrease in plasma ferritin [p<0.01]. Both iron and zinc supplementation and the combination of them had no significant impact on blood hemoglobin. Supplementation with either iron or zinc, would improve serum zinc and plasma ferritin