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.

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.