With the globalization of Korean education and the rise in the average level of education, the number of international students in Korea, especially those from China, is rapidly increasing every year. This study aimed to provide the basic information for healthy dietary education by evaluating the dietary and nutritional status of Chinese students living in Gwangju province of Korea. Data from 468 subjects who met the study participation criteria and who had given their written informed consent were used for analysis. Of the total subjects, 52.4 and 80.1% were non-drinkers and non-smokers, respectively (p<0.01). It was observed that women were more stressed than men when they did not have convenient access to a Chinese food market near their place of residence (p=0.032). The subjects with a high cultural adaptation consumed kimbap (p<0.001) and pizza (p=0.017) more frequently than the subjects with a low cultural adaptation. An analysis of the nutrient quotient revealed that male scores were higher than those of the females with regard to water intake (p=0.035) and exercise level (p=0.021). For Chinese students living in Korea to maintain proper dietary habits, it is necessary to educate them on how to purchase convenience foods and improve their lifestyle, including limiting drinking and smoking. It is also necessary to develop emotional support programs for stress management and cultural adaptation.

This study was conducted to evaluate the overall dietary habits and nutritional status of 294 elementary school students located in Gwangju using the NUTRILITE nutrition quotient (NQ). The NQ score of the subjects was 59.5 out of 100, which corresponds to the level requiring “monitoring”. Compared to the 64.4 score of students in the 5th and 6th grades of six metropolitan cities, the scores of the present subjects were lower. The NQ components were 57.4 for balance factors, 52.4 for moderation factors, 55.0 for diversification factors, 57.6 for practice factors, and 80.1 for environmental factors. Regarding the characteristics according to the NQ level, the score (61.5 in 7 times/wk vs. 55.3 in 1-2 or none times/wk) tended to be higher in subjects who frequently eat with their families (p<0.001). In conclusion, nutrition education should be provided to students to increase the frequency of meals with their families, to develop a habit of exercising regularly, and reduce the consumption of ramen, cookies, and processed drinks that are frequently consumed. These results can be used as basic data to develop nutrition education programs to improve the dietary habits and nutritional status of students in Gwangju.

Recently, there is growing interest in studying the dietary patterns that affect the risk of circulatory system diseases (CSDs). We investigated the relationship between CSDs and dietary patterns through a follow-up study in Korea (2001-2016). The participants of this study were obtained from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES). This study was a large community-based cohort study (the Ansan-Ansung areas) conducted to assess the effects of various factors, especially diet, on the onset of chronic diseases among the Korean population aged 40-69 yrs. Baseline data were collected from 2001 to 2002, and follow-up studies were performed every 2 yrs, with over 7 follow-up studies performed (2015-2016). Three dietary patterns were identified using factor analysis: “vegetable and seafood (men)/soup and stew (women)” pattern, “sweet foods and breads-rice cake” pattern, and “multigrain rice and cooked white rice” pattern. None of the dietary patterns were significantly associated with the risk of CSDs in either men or women. Our follow-up study is meaningful as it investigated whether the dietary patterns of individuals according to sex affects the development of CSDs.

There are an increasing number of reports that job related factors are associated with hypertension, sleep deprivation, obesity and diabetes. This study analyzed the relationship of working type, working hours and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The study’s subjects were 2,777 employees (1,446 males and 1,331 females) over 19 years old and their data was from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey (2015). The type of work was divided into day work and shift work. The working hours were divided into less than 40 hours, 40 to 49 hours, 50 to 59 hours and 60 hours or more per week. As a result of this study, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 26.4% of the males and 19.1% of the females. Generally there was no relationship between metabolic syndrome and type of work (day work and shift work). As a result of analysis of working hours and metabolic syndrome, the workers who worked 40-49 hr were associated with a decreased prevalence of metabolic syndrome as compared to that of workers who worked less than 40 hr (odds ratio: 0.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.24-0.95, p<0.05). Further, positive relationships were found between the number of work hours and the prevalence metabolic syndrome for specific females who worked over 40 hr/wk. It can be concluded from the results that it is important to help workers avoid metabolic syndrome through setting appropriate work hours.