Dietary patterns of Korean elementary school students in Incheon region

Abstract

This study was conducted to provide basic information for enhancing Nutrition Education of Korean elementary school. 757 upper grade elementary school students were cross‐sectional surveyed in the region of Incheon, one of 5 major cities in Korea. A questionnaire was used for the survey, and the data was analyzed with SPSSWIN 18.0 program. The investigated students were divided in 3 groups according to Body Mass Idex(BMI). 3.5% were low weight(LW), 83.8% were normal weight(NW) and 12.7% were over weight(OW). In the aggregate, 82.3% of students ate 3 times a day, while 5.4% of students ate more than 4 times, 11.9% ate twice. The rate that students ate breakfast every day were overall 69.4%, while it grew down as their grade got higher (p<.001). And the rate was found 66.2% when their mother has a job, while it was 74.3% as their mother were housewives (p<.05). The ratio to have lunch every day was 88% and it was higher than other meals’ cases, by virtue of school meal systems. 62.9% of students ate more amount of meal at dinner than breakfast or lunch. And it was found that students with higher BMI tended to have fewer amount of dinner since the rate was significantly different by BMI as 84% for LW, 64% for NW, 49.4% for OW (p<.01). As for the snacks, 89.8% of students had snacks once or twice a day, and even 6.1% of students had snacks more than 3 times a day. The most frequent time slot for snacks was between lunch and dinner (66.6%). The girls’ most favorite snacks were fruits or fruit juice, while the boys’ most favorite ones were breads (p<.001). It was found that 44.1% of students had unbalanced eating habit, and the most dislikable foods were beans(40.8%), fishes(22.9%), vegetables(19.2%). There was a significant difference about unbalanced eating habit according to BMI (56.0%, 46.1%, 26.4% in LW, NW, OW, respectively) (p<.001). Therefore, nutrition education programs should be designed considering students’ characteristics such as grade, gender, BMI, etc.