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Hydration and meal habits of physicians and medical learners: a literature review

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Abstract

Purpose

Nutrition and hydration are important components of physician and medical learner well-being; meal-skipping and insufficient hydration are known to negatively impact cognition. Existing data on these phenomena are sparse and rarely considered together; furthermore, there is a lack of literature on interventions to address these problems. We therefore aimed to characterize existing literature on this topic.

Methods

We conducted a literature review of existing literature on the prevalence of and reasons for meal-skipping and insufficient hydration in physicians and medical learners.

Results

Reported prevalences varied widely, as did the ways in which the data were collected. Reasons for meal-skipping and insufficient hydration are less studied, but a lack of time is the most commonly reported reason, among a variety of other barriers.

Conclusion

Further research is required to better characterize the prevalences and reasons for meal-skipping in physicians and medical learners. By consolidating the state of current knowledge on this topic in this work, we establish the groundwork for future studies and allow intervention studies to be based on a broader data set.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Risa Bordman for her helpful comments during revision of the manuscript.

Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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  1. James C.-Y. Lai

    Present address: , Suite 204, 119 Memorial Avenue, Orillia, ON, L3V 5X1, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, 500 University Avenue, 5th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5G 1V7, Canada

    James C.-Y. Lai & Danielle Manis

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, North York General Hospital, 4001 Leslie Street, Toronto, ON, M2K 1E1, Canada

    James C.-Y. Lai & Danielle Manis

  3. Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, 170 Colborne Street West, Orillia, ON, L3V 2Z3, Canada

    James C.-Y. Lai

Authors
  1. James C.-Y. Lai
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Contributions

Conceptualization: JL, DM; formal analysis and investigation: JL; writing—original draft preparation: JL; writing—review and editing: DM; Supervision: DM.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James C.-Y. Lai.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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This is a literature review: thus, no ethical approval was required.

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Lai, J.CY., Manis, D. Hydration and meal habits of physicians and medical learners: a literature review. Eur J Nutr 61, 3345–3356 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-02914-y

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