This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the nutrition quotient and the dietary intake of adolescents. A total of 393 adolescents were surveyed to evaluate their Nutrition Quotient for Korean Adolescents (NQ-A) scores and dietary intake. The average age of the survey subjects was 15 years and the average NQ-A score of the subjects was 49.11±13.35. There was no significant difference in the NQ-A scores according to gender and age. The average dietary diversity score was 3.77±0.85, and it was significantly higher in boys than in girls (p< .05) with the scores of 12-14-year-old students being significantly higher than those aged 15-18 years (p< .01). The results of comparing the percentage of recommended intake or adequate intake and the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) according to the NQ-A grade, showed that the ‘High’ grade had a significantly higher intake percentage of vitamin B1, B12, folate, phosphorus, iron and a significantly higher MAR (p< .05). From a long-term perspective, efforts to improve dietary habits are deemed necessary to meet an individual’s nutritional requirements. Adolescents themselves should develop proper eating behaviors and acquire suitable dietary management skills to enhance their nutritional status, ultimately contributing to an improvement in their quality of life.
Considering that the number of middle-aged single-person households is increasing, this study investigates dietary behaviors, nutrient intake, and mental health according to household type. Data were procured from the 2015-2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Totally, 5,466 participants aged 50-64 years were classified into 2 groups: a household with one member was defined as a single-person household, and households with two or more members were described as multi-person households. Single-person households comprised 10.63% of the total, with a higher average age, and lower income and economic levels than multi-person households. Compared to multiperson households, single-person households had a higher frequency of skipping breakfast, eating alone, and dining out, the moderately and severely food insecure group was more than 5 times, and nutrient intake and dietary quality were poorer. In the fully adjusted model, the odds ratios (ORs) of depressive symptoms were 2.35 times (95% CI: 1.39-3.96), and suicide ideation was 1.95 times (95% CI: 1.35-2.82) in single-person compared to multi-person households. Our results lead us to conclude that poor dietary intake in middle-aged single-person households affects the mental health, and the above factors should be considered when framing the dietary policy.
This study examined the lifestyle factors, dietary attitudes, food habits, and dietary nutrition intake of college students before and after nutrition education. A total of 44 college students were recruited and a questionnaire survey was conducted. Dietary nutrient consumption was obtained from the one day 24-hr recall. Scores on ‘Concerns about health (p<0.05)’, ‘Regular exercise (p<0.01)’, and number of steps (p<0.001) were significantly higher after-training. The dietary attitude (31.3 vs. 33.7, p<0.01) and food habits (53.5 vs. 59.7, p<0.01) were significantly higher after-training. The scores on ‘Eating a lot of food that I want to eat is more important than nutrition (p<0.01)’, ‘I am interested in information on nutrition and health (p<0.01)’, ‘Have three meals a day (p<0.01)’, ‘Have breakfast regularly (p<0.01)’, ‘Drink milk every day (p<0.001)’, ‘Have fruits every day (p<0.05)’, and ‘Apply nutrition knowledge to daily life (p<0.001)’ were significantly higher after-training. Among the nutrients intakes, the protein (p<0.05), vitamin C (p<0.01), and calcium (p<0.001) were significantly higher after-training. Nutrition education improved the lifestyle factors, dietary attitudes, food habits, and dietary nutrition intakes.
As an indicator of skin health, acidified skin surface pH ranging from 5 to 7 is crucial for maintaining skin barrier. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between skin pH and dietary pattern (DP) as well as nutrient or food intake in 48 healthy middle aged adults. Skin pH was measured in the skin surface of the inner arm, and blood lipid profile was analyzed. Dietary intake data were obtained using 1 day 24 hour recall method, and DP was extracted using factor analysis. Results revealed that skin pH ranged from 5.15 to 6.88 in all subjects. There was no significant difference in skin pH between males and females. When subjects were grouped by tertile of skin pH, the food intake of fruit, and the nutrient intake of omega 6 fatty acid, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, β-carotene, and riboflavin in the first tertile group with skin pH ranging from 5.15 to 5.68 were significantly higher than in the third tertile group with skin pH ranging from 6.26 to 6.88. There was no difference in blood lipid profile between the first and the third tertile group. Among 5 DP extracted by factor analysis, DP5 characterized by a high intake of nuts and fruits as well as a low intake of beverages and alcohol was inversely correlated with skin pH after adjusting for gender and age. DP5 was positively correlated with nutrient intake of carbohydrate, fiber, potassium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, β-carotene, thiamine, and riboflavin but negatively correlated with sodium after adjusting for gender, age, smoking, and energy intake. Therefore, acidified skin pH could be maintained by these DP and nutrients.
This study was conducted to obtain principal data on nutrition education according to college major after analyzing the nutrition status of 302 male university subjects. The 302 male subjects consisted of male students majoring in literature and science (109), food and nutrition (94), and physical education (99). Exactly 47.9% (highest among the groups) of male students majoring in food and nutrition ate regular meals, 39.4% ate breakfast. Precisely 29.4% of subjects majoring in literature and science never ate out. Exactly 23.2% of subjects majoring in physical education over ate frequently, and 31.3% enjoyed eating out. Intakes of protein, fat, vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, C, E, folic acid, Ca, Fe, sodium, and cholesterol among male students majoring in food and nutrition appeared to be significantly higher compared to those of other groups (p<0.05). Intakes of energy, Zn, dietary fiber, and cholesterol among male students majoring in physical education were higher, whereas intakes of all nutrients except for dietary fiber by subjects majoring in literature and science were lower than the other two groups. Exactly 20.2% of male students were interested in health. We found that 52.4% of subjects considered exercise as an important factor for maintaining health. Smoking rate was the highest (43.6%) among male students majoring in nutrition, and the drinking rate was highest (56.0%) among male students majoring in literature and science. We found that smoking was continued as a habit (61.5%) while drinking was essential for social relationships (73.9%). From this study, it was found that male students have problems associated with eating regular meals, skipping breakfast, overeating, and intake of unbalanced foods. Also, male students who majored in food and nutrition demonstrated problems in applying their knowledge to proper dietary habits. In conclusion, a systemic educational program needs to be introduced to promote healthful dietary habits in male students.
The purpose of this study was to compare the awareness of dietary patterns and health of full-time and employed housewives. The investigation gathered information on general characteristics, dietary lifestyle, nutritional status, and health by questionnaire as well as anthropometric measurements. The subjects included housewives living in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province (86 full-time and 127 working housewives) during November 2009 to January 2010. The average age, height, and weight of the housewives were 45.8±7.6 yr, 161.0±8.4 cm, and 55.7±6.3 kg, respectively. The average monthly income of the households was 3 million to 5 million won (31.4% full-time and 37.0% working housewives), and their average food expense was 200,000 to 500,000 won (46.5% full-time and 48.1% working housewives). More than 90% of the studied homes were nuclear families and the most common number of children was 2 to 3 (79.1% full-time and 76.4% working housewives). The ratio of employed housewives who ate regular meals was 35.4%, but that of the full-time housewives was 48.2% (p〈0.05). Of the working housewives, 7.1% never ate breakfast and the primary reason for skipping breakfast was 'busy in the morning' (61.1%). The type of food that the housewives preferred when eating out was Korean food, both for the full-time and employed housewives (76.0%). All the housewives overate calories and the full-time housewives ate more protein, fat, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, and cholesterol than the employed housewives (p〈0.05). Both the full-time and employed housewives were more satisfied with supper than with other meals. About 30.6% of the full-time and 33.9% of the working housewives had no interest in health, but answered that regular exercise was very important for health (33.3% full-time and 39.7% working housewives). In conclusion, working housewives have poor dietary habits and nutrient intakes, thus substantial measures to improve these problems are urgently needed.
This study was performed to investigate the relationships among personality preferences, dietary habit and nutrient intake of University students (n=283). Mean dietary habit score was similar between sexes and was 46.1/100 in male students and 45.1/100 in female students. Average energy intake of male students was 2,019 kcal (80.8% of RDA) and that of female students was 1,675 kcal (83.7%). Male students were taking less than 90% of RDA in calcium and vitamin B2 and female students were taking less than 90% of RDA in calcium, iron, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Students preferring Judgment had significantly higher dietary habit score than students preferring Perception. Extraversion had higher nutrient intake than Introversion both in male and female students. Male students preferring Feeling had also higher nutrient intake than students preferring Thinking. Nutrient density per 1,000 kcal was higher in Thinking and Judgment than Feeling and Perception. In conclusion, students preferring Judgment and Extraversion have better dietary habit and nutrient intake than those preferring Perception and Introversion. More studies are necessary between personality preferences and dietary behavior to contribute to effective nutrition education and counseling.
This study was carried out to compare the dietary behaviors and the nutrient intake of a middle school and a high school girls in Iksan. The subjects consisted of 132 middle school girls and 122 high school girls in Iksan. The proportion of subjects eating meals irregularly was higher in the high school girls (98.6%) than in the middle school girls(78.7%). The proportion of subjects skipping a meal also was higher in the high school girls(61.5%) than in the middle school girls(53.8%) and most of them (65.8%) skipped breakfast though they thought breakfast was the most important meal of a day (87.4%). The subjects tended to overeat at lunch (38.6%), and at dinner (55.9%). The main reasons of skipping a meal were 1. They had no time (49.3%), and 2. They had poor appetite (24.7%) Mean daily energy intake was 2198.5Kcal in the middle school girls and 2150.5Kcal in the high school girls and mean daily intake of protein, iron, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and niacin was significantly higher (p〈0.05, p〈0.01) in the middle school girls than in the high school girls. Mean daily calcium, iron, vitamin B1, vitamin A and C intake of middle school girls were lower than those of RDA and all nutrients intake of high school girls except for phosphorus was lower than those of RDA. The index of nutritional quality (INQ) was under 1.0 for calcium, iron, vitamin A, B1 and C. Mean blood level of cholesterol, triglyceride, Hb, Hct, GOT, GPT were 170.9mg/dl, 78.9mg/dl, 13.1g/dl, 39.5%, 18.8mg/d and 15.7mg/dl, respectively.
Maternal stress was very common symptom that every pregnant women could have experienced during pregnant period. We found that the causative factors of stress for subjects were physical change(50.8%), family relationship(13.6%), change of body image(7.4%), concern baby(6.8%), economic difficulties(6.4%), depress(4.3%), morning sickness(3%), and miscellaneous(3.5%). According to our study, maternal stress during the first trimester negatively correlated with food and nutrients intake of pregnant women and gave low weight gain during pregnancy and low birth weight of infants. It also significantly correlated with monthly income(p〈0.001) and monthly food cost(p〈0.001) during pregnant period. Mean intake of Calcium and Iron were 47~60% of RDA and 35~48 of RDA, respectively. With the Iron supplement the total intake of Iron exceeded 100% of RDA. We also found majority of food items, except seaweeds, fruits and vegetables, were negatively correlated with maternal stress during three trimesters. Additional support system projected by professionals in health-care field could mediate maternal stress and lead to healthy pregnancy outcome.
The purposes of this study were to assess dietary intake obtained by easy method and to compare dietary behavior of house wife and female college students in Yanbian. The subjects consisted of 276 house wives and 228 female college students. Mean daily energy intake of house wives was 1926.0kcal and that of female college students was 1949.0kcal. Calcium intake as NAR(Nutrient adequacy ratio) was lowest in house wife and female college student. Iron intake was also low in subjects and lower in female college student than in house wife. Meal frequency per day was regular in subjects. Skipping meal time in subjects was breakfast and snaking time was late evening generally. Frequency of eating out was rare in most subjects and 60.6% of subjects preferred chinese food in eating out, while house wives preferred Korean food than female college student in eating out. The vegetables were preferred than meat or fish and used by fried in sauces. Hot and sour tastes were more like than greasy taste in subjects. Nutrient intake levels and dietary behaviors of house wife were to be like as those of female college students in general. BMI(Body mass index) was lower in female collage students than house wives, similarly in Korean. According to these results, house wives and female college students in Yanbian had similar dietary patterns. Calcium intake was tend to be low and dietary pattern was regular, dietary qualifies of subjects were adequate. Nutrient intake and dietary pattern in Yanbian were to be like as in Korean, and the Korean-Chinese in Yanbian maintained traditional dietary pattern.