Complaints of Fatigue and Dietary Life in Medical Students.

Lee, Sung Min; Lee, Sung Gon; Lee, Jae Eun; Kong, Eun Hee; Choi, Jong Soon

doi:2009.30.11.880

Korean J Fam Med > Volume 30(11); 2009 > Article

Original Article

Korean Journal of Family Medicine 2009;30(11):880-886.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4082/kjfm.2009.30.11.880 Published online November 20, 2009.

Complaints of Fatigue and Dietary Life in Medical Students.

Sung Min Lee, Sung Gon Lee, Jae Eun Lee, Eun Hee Kong, Jong Soon Choi

Department of Family Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea. fmcjs@naver.com

의과대학생의 피로 호소와 식생활 습관

이성민, 이성곤, 이재은, 공은희, 최종순

고신대학교 의과대학 부속 복음병원 가정의학교실

Abstract

Background
Fatigue is a common problem in medical students and is thought to be related to poor academic performance. Fatigue is expected to be highly related to dietary habits, but previous research was not enough. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between dietary habits and the prevalence of fatigue and also to give an update on basic research data for improving academic performance in medical students. Methods: The study group consisted of 170 healthy second-year medical students attending three university school of medicine in Busan. They completed a questionnaire dealing with fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale), dietary habits, lifestyle, and academic performance. Results: On multivariate logistic regression analyses, skipping breakfast (completely skipping breakfast everyday versus having breakfast everyday; odds ratio 7.23; 95% confi dence interval, 2.07 to 25.28; P = 0.002) was positively correlated with the complaints of fatigue. Conclusion: Skipping breakfast was associated with the complaints of fatigue in medical students.

Key Words: Dietary Habit; Lifestyle; Fatigue; Medical Student