A checklist of dietary behavior items for the elderly was developed based on Korean dietary guidelines. First, a literature review was conducted, and 63 preliminary items, including 30 items on food intake, 12 on eating habits, and 21 on dietary culture, were obtained to evaluate the dietary guidelines. The preliminary items were evaluated by experts using Lawshe’s method to verify the content validity. They were then revised, resulting in 52 items: 25, 11, and 16 in the food intake, eating habits, and dietary culture domains, respectively. A face-to-face survey was conducted on 331 people over 65 years of age in the metropolitan area, and their one-day food intake was surveyed using a 24-hour recall method in August 2022. The 48 items, including 24, 11, and 13 items on food intake, eating habits, and dietary culture, respectively, correlated significantly with the evaluation indicators of nutrient intake, such as mean adequacy ratio, dietary diversity score, and nutrient intake density. These items were considered suitable for evaluating the elderly's compliance with dietary guidelines.

This study examined the historical changes of and dietitians’ needs for the Life Cycle-based Dietary Guidelines for Koreans. Content analysis of relevant documents, a survey of 307 dietitians, and in-depth interviews with eight dietitians were conducted. The dietary guidelines published between 2003 and 2004 included one set of common guidelines and several sets of dietary action guides corresponding to six target groups: pregnant and lactating women, infants and toddlers, children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. The guidelines were revised between 2008 and 2011 and consisted of six sets of guidelines for the target groups without common guidelines. The dietitians considered five or six as appropriate numbers of guidelines for each group. Needs for separate guidelines for women of child-bearing age and male workers were reported. The dietitians preferred one set of common guidelines with specific action guides for each target group and wanted easier and more specific messages to be included in the new guidelines. It is suggested that the Life Cycle-based Dietary Guidelines for Koreans should be revised to reflect such dietitians’ needs.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sodium-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutritional knowledge in university students according to the practice of dietary guidelines for Koreans established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. Based on the total practice score related to the dietary guidelines (PDG), we classified subjects into a “low practice of the dietary guidelines (LPDG)” group (n=94, male=43, female=51) (total score of PDG ≤13) and a “high practice of the dietary guidelines (HPDG)” group (n=56, male=32, female=24) (total score of PDG >13). Subjects were asked about general characteristics, lifestyle, salt-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutritional knowledge using a questionnaire. The LPDG group had more subjects who were breakfast skippers (p<0.001) compared to the HPDG group. The LPDG group (31.26) had a significantly lower score in terms of salt-related dietary attitudes compared to the HPDG group (33.77) (p=0.0042). The score for salt-related dietary attitudes was significantly higher in the HPDG (32.52) group than in the LPDG (29.91) group (p=0.0041). There was no significant difference in the total score for salt-related nutrition knowledge between the groups. The correlation analysis indicated that the dietary guidelines practice score had a positive correlation with the salt-related dietary attitude score (r=0.3593, p<0.0001) and the dietary attitude score (r=0.3443, p<0.0001) after adjustments for sex. These results show that the degree of adherence to the dietary guidelines for adults may be related to sodium-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutrition knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to investigate nutritional knowledge, practice of eating behavior guidelines, and problematic dietary habits in working high school students in comparison with non-working high school students. A survey questionnaire was formulated to obtain information on demographic variables, body size, part-time jobs, nutritional knowledge, practice of eating behavior guidelines, and dietary habits. The developed questionnaire was given out to 515 students attending a vocational high school in Yongin, Gyeonggi-Do. Those who had been working 5 hours or more per day for at least a month at the time of survey administration were defined as working students for this study. Proportions of working students were similar between male and female students (i.e. 49.5% for male, 50.5% for female). No significant difference was found in scores of nutritional knowledge between working (8.43±2.29) and non-working students (8.60±2.19). However, some dietary habits were found to be dependent on working status. While approximately 43% of non-working students reported skipping a meal, about 57% of working students did so (p〈0.01). The proportion of students with any drinking experience was significantly higher among working students (92%) compared to non-working students (80%) (p〈0.001). Working students were found to drink alcoholic beverages more often than non-working students (p〈0.001). The mean score of practice of eating behavior guidelines was lower in working students than non-working students. The magnitude of this difference was modest (51.33±0.63 in working students, 53.40±0.51 in non-working students), but reached statistical significance (p〈0.01). Based on the findings from this study, it is suggested that specific behavior-oriented messages to improve certain problematic dietary habits need to be directed toward working high school students.