ABSTRACT
Research indicates the COVID-19 epidemic changes people's health and diet, However, this has not yet been well discussed in Taiwan, especially in college students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of distance learning on college students' dietary patterns, sleep quality and perception of stress during the COVID-19 epidemic in Taiwan. 265 college students from a university in Taichung were recruited in this study. The self-administered online questionnaire was used to investigate the changes in eating behavior, sleep quality, and perception of stress before and one month after distance learning, and further analyzed the relationship among them. The questionnaire contains demographic information, dietary questionnaires (including six categories of food intake behaviors, convenience food intake frequency), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Perceived Stress Scale (Chinese 14-item PSS). The results showed that the proportion of college students to meet the recommended Taiwan Dietary Guidelines amount in vegetables (21.9%), fruits (27.5%), meats and dairy products (15.8%), and nuts and seeds (11.3%) were lower during distance learning. The frequency of convenient food intake was lower during distance learning (13.31 +/- 6.10 points;never to occasionally). During the distance learning period, there was a significant negative correlation between dietary patterns and sleep quality (r = -0.160, p = 0.009), It shows that college students with higher dietary pattern scores have better sleep quality. During the distance learning period, there was a significant positive correlation between sleep quality and perceived stress (r = 0.320, p < 0.001), It shows that college students with higher levels of stress had poorer sleep quality. This study found that the lower the perceived stress of college students, the better their diet and sleep quality;conversely, the higher the perceived stress, the worse their diet and sleep quality. Studies have shown that a healthy, balanced diet can reduce the risk of getting various diseases. Therefore, in the post-epidemic era, it is recommended that schools increase the accessibility and availability of vegetables, fruits, dairy products, nuts and seeds on campus to make it easier for teachers and students to obtain such healthy food in order to achieve the goal of promoting balanced diet.Copyright © 2022 Nutrition Society in Taipei. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This purpose of this study is to help students developing problem-solving skills by using Problem-based Learning (PBL) as a teaching model, combining with the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a training tool to evaluate students' clinical competencies. Sixty-five college junior students from a therapeutic nutrition course were participated. The topics of PBL included diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. For each disease, pre- and post-test quiz and after class exam were assessed to evaluate the students' learning effectiveness. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, OSCE was performed online. The focus group interview and learning effectiveness questionnaire were conducted by the end of this course for all participants. Moreover, 37 students who attended the dietitian internship filled in the learning effectiveness questionnaire again after the internship. The results indicated that after the PBL, the post quiz score for each disease was increased, and through the online OSCE training, students' abilities to master nutrition education and counseling had been upgraded. Students indicated that both PBL and OSCE training could contributed to the learning effectiveness. The better academic performance students were, the more willing they are to work in nutrition-related fields in the future. For those who finished the dietitian internship agreed that they could understand the work content better in general regional and regional hospitals than in teaching ones. In conclusion, PBL teaching model combined with OSCE training could effectively improve students' learning motivation, learning effectiveness and practical application in a therapeutic nutrition course.Copyright © 2022 Nutrition Society in Taipei. All rights reserved.