This study aimed to investigate associations of consumption pattern of convenience food with related factors among college students. A total of 583 college students (211 males and 372 females) residing in Chungbuk participated in a questionnaire survey in December 2019. Female students reported that they spent more time using smartphone (p<0.001) and had higher smartphone dependency (p<0.01) than male students. As for the time to use convenience food, significantly higher (20.9%) of male students used it for late night snacks and 55.4% of female students used it for lunch (p<0.001). More than 30% of subjects were ‘Not nutritious’ about the concern of convenience food, showing no significant difference between males and females. Male students had higher consumption frequencies of ramyeon (p<0.05), fast food (p<0.01), water (p<0.001), lunch box (p<0.001), instant Guk/Tang (p<0.05), hamburger/sandwich (p<0.05), salad (p<0.05), and raw food (p<0.05). Female students had a higher consumption frequency of sweet and greasy baked products compared to male students (p<0.001). When the night snack and smartphone use level increased, the intake of convenience food also increased in both groups. For female students, the check of nutrition labeling had a significant negative correlation with convenience food consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to provide gender-specific nutritional education and desirable dietary guidance for college students in early adulthood.

The purpose of this study was to compare convenience food purchasing behaviors and food habits. The study, which asked surveyed 131 female college students in Daejeon, in 2011, on how they used nutrition labels. The subjects were divided into two groups, in terms of the way they checked examined nutrition labels: a "Check" group(n=62, 47.3%) and a "No check" group(n=69, 52.7%). Reasons given for not reading nutrition labelings were "a habit of buying" for 72.2%, and "too small or rude" for 19.1%. The "Check" group reported higher interest in nutrition(p<0.001) and hygiene(p<0.01) than the "No check" group. Those who used the labels had higher cereal(p<0.01) and vegetable(p<0.01) consumption and a lower intake of fast foods(p<0.05). But however, most of the subjects(65.6%) chose by taste, at the time they purchased the convenience foods. The subjects considered "expiry date"(n=87, 66.4%) to be more important information on food labels than "nutrient composition"(n=11, 8.4%). The number of products whose nutrition labels were checked by over 50% was five out of 12. In conclusion, our study suggests that proper use of nutrition labeling may improve food choices and enable healthy dietary practices. Further efforts are needed to provide the public with nutrition education programs on how to read nutrition labeling. Modifying nutrition labels to make them easier for the public to understand should also be considered.