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.

This study aimed to provide fundamental data that could guide high school students' night eating behavior by investigating habits of their night eating consumption during COVID-19 pandemic (From 2021/5/13 to 5/20). Association between their eating habits and the Nutrition Quotient for Korean Adolescents (NQ-A) were also explored. This study included a total of 604 students, among whom 441 students were identified as night eating consumers. Among all subjects, 30.5% consumed night eating 3~4 times a week, 27.3% consumed 1-2 times a week, and 27.0% did not consume any night eating at all. The high-night eating group had a higher score of total NQ-A than the non-night eating group for both male (p<0.05) and female (p<0.001) students. This was because male students in the high-night eating group reported significantly higher rates of daily dinner consumption compared to non-night eating group. Furthermore, both male (p<0.05) and female (p<0.001) students showed a significant increase in ‘Moderation’. ‘Diversity’ was also significantly increased in female studies (p<0.05) as subcategories of dietary habits according to night eating frequency. These findings highlight the need for practical research to develop nutritional guidelines for night eating that reflect preferences of students while providing adequate nutritional habits.

This study investigated the correlation between parents' nutrition quotient (NQ) and the nutrition quotient of Korean preschoolers (NQ-P) of picky eaters (PE) aged five years living in Dobong-gu, Seoul. The questionnaire was conducted online by parents of 187 preschoolers between May 25 and June 5, 2020. PE was defined as an average score of 3 or more on the picky eating questionnaires; non-picky eaters (NPE, n=120) and PE (n=67). The correlation between preschoolers and their parents was assessed using the NQ-P and NQ, respectively. Compared to the NPE, picky eating (p<0.001) was significantly higher, and vegetable preference (p<0.001), NQ-P (p<0.05), moderation dimension (p<0.05), frequency of vegetable intake (p<0.05) of balance dimension, and processed beverages (p<0.01) of moderation dimension were significantly lower in the PE. The correlation between the NQ and NQ-P was related to the diversity (p<0.05), moderation (p<0.05), and environment (p<0.01) of NQ in the NPE and not related to the PE. PEs should increase their frequency of vegetable intake and reduce their intake of processed beverages. To increase the NQ-P of PE, parents should eat a balanced diet. Future studies on the NQ-P of preschoolers aged 3 to 5 are needed.

In this study, we identified the differences in food content watching habits and nutrition quotient in adolescent (NQ-A). A total number of 811 subjects were surveyed to establish their general characteristics, food content watching habits, and NQ-A using a self-administered questionnaire. In addition, the mediating effect of watching motivation between the type of food content watched and the NQ-A score was determined. The classification by the type of the food content mainly watched showed that 405 participants (49.9%) watched the Mukbang content, 244 (30.1%) the Cookbang content, and 162 (20.0%) another contents. Among the content watching motives in the Cookbang content group, information acquisition and enjoyment were predominant, whereas emotional satisfaction had the lowest frequency. Compared to the Mukbang content group, when the Cookbang content group mediated information acquisition motivation, the scores of the total, diversity, balance, and practice of NQ-A score areas increased. Compared to the Mukbang content group, the score in the moderation area decreased when the Cookbang content group mediated enjoyment motivation. If food content with accurate information and interesting content are produced and used for adolescent nutrition education, the education will be highly effective.

The purpose of this study was to identify nutrition quotient for elderly (NQ-E) and to investigate factors affecting NQ-E of the elderly using welfare center and senior citizen’s center in Changwon city. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted between June 2021 and early August 2021 for 320 elderly (≥65 years, male, n=52, female, n=268). As a result of the survey, the mean NQ-E score was 61.12, which was within the medium-high grade. The scores of balance, moderation, and dietary behavior factors were within the medium-high grade, while diversity factor was within the medium-low grade. According to the results of the Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis, NQ-E showed positive correlations with the ‘with family’ (p<0.01), ‘education level’ (p<0.01), ‘health functional foods consumption’ (p<0.01), ‘monthly household income’ (p<0.05), ‘nutrition education experience’ (p<0.05), ‘reading nutrition labeling of health functional foods’ (p<0.01), ‘perception of the efficacy of health functional foods’ (p<0.01), and ‘the number of times of leisure activities per week’ (p<0.01) and negative correlations with the ‘gender’ (p<0.05), ‘age’ (p<0.01), ‘smoking’ (p<0.05), and ‘social frailty’ (p<0.01). As a result of multiple regression analysis, ‘gender’ (p<0.05), ‘perception of the efficacy of health functional foods’ (p<0.05), ‘the number of times of leisure activities per week’ (p<0.05), and ‘social frailty’ (p<0.05) were found to be factors affecting NQ-E. Based on the results of this study, customized services by characteristic, nutrition education, and counseling for the elderly should be implemented and the development of various programs and continuous support of the community are necessary so that the elderly can carry out social exchange.

This study aimed to assess the association between the weight status and dietary behavior of preschool children. The survey included 412 preschool children aged 2-5 years in 31 childcare facilities in Gwangju. General characteristics of children and their mothers, weight, height, feeding type, complementary feeding, food allergy, and dietary behavior of children based on the Nutrition Quotient for preschoolers (NQ-P) questionnaire were considered. Children were classified into 4 groups by weight status; underweight, normal, overweight, and obese, based on the 2017 Korean National Growth Charts. The percentage of children in the respective groups was 5.3, 70.9, 10.7, 13.1%. Weight status was not related to breast feeding duration nor the starting time of complementary feeding. The NQ-P scores of underweight, normal, overweight, and obese groups were 55.4, 60.0, 60.8, 60.0. Among the three factors covered by the NQ-P, ‘balance’ and ‘environment’ scores of the underweight group were lower than that of other groups. Underweight children consumed beans, fish, and white milk less frequently. The ‘moderation’ scores of the overweight/obese group were lower than those of the normal or obese groups. Obese children more frequently ate processed meat and fast foods. Proper nutrition education is thus needed for not only obese children but also underweight children based on their age, along with their parents, and caregivers.

This study examined the dietary habits and nutrition quotient (NQ) scores according to leftover food during school meal services among middle school students in the Gyeonggi region. A survey on the dietary habits was conducted among 405 male and female middle school students located in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province. The amount of leftover food in the school meals was surveyed using the visual method through a questionnaire over two days. The survey was conducted from July 8, 2019, to July 12, 2019. After calculating the average total leftovers of each student over the two days, they were categorized into the following three groups: the top third was the large leftover group. The middle third was the medium leftover group, and the lower third was the small leftover group. The characteristics of the groups that had leftovers were analyzed. Female, normal-weight, and underweight students accounted for a greater proportion of the large leftover group than male, overweight, and obese students. The rates of selective eating and compliance with new food intake were significantly lower in the large leftover group than in the small leftover group. A comparison of the nutrition quotient for the adolescent (NQ-A) scores of each group revealed significantly lower scores of the large leftover group for all factors (balance, moderation, food diversity, practice, and environment) than the small leftover group. Therefore, there are statistically significant differences in the dietary habits, nutritional quality, and eating behaviors of middle school students that are associated with the amount of leftover food during school meals.

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.

This study aim to evaluate dietary quality and nutritional status according to the consumption of health functional food using Nutrition Quotient for Korean elderly (NQ-E) for 288 elderly people attending senior welfare centers in Gyeonggi-do. The questionnaire consisted of items about general information, health functional food, and Nutrition Quotient for Korean elderly (NQ-E). Chi-squared test, Fisher's exact tests, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were performed using the SAS program ver. 9.4. Among the male and female subjects, the female subjects consumed more health functional food. The results of the dietary quality and nutritional status difference according to the intake of health functional food showed significant differences only in the areas of variety and abstinence among nutrition quotient factors for men, while no significant differences were observed in any of the nutrition quotient factors for women. In conclusion, focused-nutrition education program and useful guideline is needed for promoting adequate consumption of health functional foods in elderly.