Assessment and remediation practices in Australian Dietetics courses

Australians appear to be interested in cooking programs but anecdotally home cooking frequency has declined. Research suggests that being a proficient cook is associated with better diet quality, health and well‐being. The aim of this national survey was to investigate relationships between dietary patterns, cooking and food skills. Adults were recruited from August 2016–2017 to complete an online survey using the validated cooking/food skills ability scale (14 items) to rate how good (1 = very poor; 7 = very good) they performed a range of skills (blending, stewing, roasting, baking, meal planning, preparing meals in advance, following recipes, shopping with a grocery list). Demographic data included age, sex, education and BMI. Diet quality was assessed using the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS), a brief validated index. In total 910 completed the survey (mean (SD) age 45.2 years (16.1), body mass index (BMI) 25.4 kg/m2 (5.6), 81% female, 33% trade certificate or lower). Females and older adults reported greater cooking and food skills confidence compared to others. Overall diet quality was positively correlated with food skills (r = 0.31, p < 0.001) and cooking skills (r = 0.22, p < 0.001). While there was no correlation between cooking skills and BMI (p > 0.05), there was a negative correlation between food skills and BMI (r = ‐0.13, p < 0.001). Hierarchical regression analysis indicated variation in diet quality was explained (F = 15.8, p < 0.001) by food skills, creativity, age, sex, income and infrequent take‐away food consumption. Interventions testing the impact of teaching cooking and food skills on improving dietary in Australian adults are warranted.