Like other allied health fields, physical therapy has incorporated health promotion as a part of their practice. A large and important component of health promotion is nutrition. Little research has been conducted on the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapists and has only included small sample sizes. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to expand upon the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapy students. Subjects included doctoral physical therapy students from across the United States, ranging from first year to senior level. The present research was conducted online via a Qualtrics survey. Surveys, included a nutrition knowledge test (NKT) (32 possible points) and an attitudes scale (55 possible points) and were disseminated by doctoral physical therapy program directors to students in various programs. The mean attitude score of this sample (N=605) was 47.13 ± 4.32. The mean NKT score was 22.43 ± 3.43. There was no correlation between nutrition attitudes and nutrition knowledge (.026, p=.526. There were differences in NKT scores between those who had taken previous nutrition courses and those who had not. From these results, we can conclude that increasing the number of nutrition courses taken by physical therapy students may lead to greater knowledge of nutrition.
","abstract_html":"<p>Like other allied health fields, physical therapy has incorporated health promotion as a part of their practice. A large and important component of health promotion is nutrition. Little research has been conducted on the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapists and has only included small sample sizes. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to expand upon the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapy students.<strong> </strong>Subjects included doctoral physical therapy students from across the United States, ranging from first year to senior level. The present research was conducted online via a Qualtrics survey. Surveys, included a nutrition knowledge test (NKT) (32 possible points) and an attitudes scale (55 possible points) and were disseminated by doctoral physical therapy program directors to students in various programs. The mean attitude score of this sample (N=605) was 47.13 ± 4.32. The mean NKT score was 22.43 ± 3.43. There was no correlation between nutrition attitudes and nutrition knowledge (.026, p=.526. There were differences in NKT scores between those who had taken previous nutrition courses and those who had not. From these results, we can conclude that increasing the number of nutrition courses taken by physical therapy students may lead to greater knowledge of nutrition.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Day, Jordan D"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science - Kinesiology","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Kinesiology and Health Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Eric Jones, Ph.D.","Dustin Joubert, Ph.D.","Todd Whitehead, Ph.D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-04-19T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2018-04-19T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:30:15Z","subjects":["Physical Therapy","Physical Therapy Students","Nutrition Education","Nutrition Attitudes","Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition","Medical Education","Other Nutrition"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/185","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Eric Jones, Ph.D.","Dustin Joubert, Ph.D.","Todd Whitehead, Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Day, Jordan D"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-05-07T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Kinesiology and Health Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science - Kinesiology"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Physical Therapy","Physical Therapy Students","Nutrition Education","Nutrition Attitudes","Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition","Medical Education","Other Nutrition"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/185"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Like other allied health fields, physical therapy has incorporated health promotion as a part of their practice. A large and important component of health promotion is nutrition. Little research has been conducted on the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapists and has only included small sample sizes. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to expand upon the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapy students. Subjects included doctoral physical therapy students from across the United States, ranging from first year to senior level. The present research was conducted online via a Qualtrics survey. Surveys, included a nutrition knowledge test (NKT) (32 possible points) and an attitudes scale (55 possible points) and were disseminated by doctoral physical therapy program directors to students in various programs. The mean attitude score of this sample (N=605) was 47.13 ± 4.32. The mean NKT score was 22.43 ± 3.43. There was no correlation between nutrition attitudes and nutrition knowledge (.026, p=.526. There were differences in NKT scores between those who had taken previous nutrition courses and those who had not. From these results, we can conclude that increasing the number of nutrition courses taken by physical therapy students may lead to greater knowledge of nutrition.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Entry-Level Physical Therapy Students' Knowledge and Attitudes of Nutrition"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Eric Jones, Ph.D.","Dustin Joubert, Ph.D.","Todd Whitehead, Ph.D."],"dc:creator":["Day, Jordan D"],"dc:date.available":["2018-05-07T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Like other allied health fields, physical therapy has incorporated health promotion as a part of their practice. A large and important component of health promotion is nutrition. Little research has been conducted on the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapists and has only included small sample sizes. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to expand upon the knowledge and attitudes of nutrition in physical therapy students. Subjects included doctoral physical therapy students from across the United States, ranging from first year to senior level. The present research was conducted online via a Qualtrics survey. Surveys, included a nutrition knowledge test (NKT) (32 possible points) and an attitudes scale (55 possible points) and were disseminated by doctoral physical therapy program directors to students in various programs. The mean attitude score of this sample (N=605) was 47.13 ± 4.32. The mean NKT score was 22.43 ± 3.43. There was no correlation between nutrition attitudes and nutrition knowledge (.026, p=.526. There were differences in NKT scores between those who had taken previous nutrition courses and those who had not. From these results, we can conclude that increasing the number of nutrition courses taken by physical therapy students may lead to greater knowledge of nutrition.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/185"],"dc:subject":["Physical Therapy","Physical Therapy Students","Nutrition Education","Nutrition Attitudes","Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition","Medical Education","Other Nutrition"],"dc:title":["Entry-Level Physical Therapy Students' Knowledge and Attitudes of Nutrition"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Kinesiology and Health Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science - Kinesiology"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:30:15Z"}