Change of Children's Meal Structure in Terms of Temporal and Spatial Dimensions : Analysis of the Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of 1998 and 2009

Article information

Korean J Community Nutr. 2012;17(1):109-118

Publication date (electronic) : 2012 December 18

doi : https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2012.17.1.109

Youngmi Lee^,¹, Jae Eun Shim^,¹^,², Jihyun Yoon^,¹^,²

¹Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

²Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding author: Jihyun Yoon, Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Korea Tel: (02) 880-8750, Fax: (02) 884-0305 E-mail: hoonyoon@snu.ac.kr

Abstract

This study was conducted to characterize changes in the meal structure of Korean children in terms of temporal and spatial dimensions. The data of 1,891 and 1,627 school-aged children and adolescents extracted respectively from the 1998 and 2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were analyzed by gender, age group, and residential area. From 1998 to 2009, the total eating events increased from 4.3 to 4.6 (p=0.001); the average number of meal intake decreased from 2.8 to 2.7 (p<0.001) while that of snack intake increased from 1.5 to 1.9 (p<0.001). The prevalence of “3 meals a day” pattern tended to decrease while that of “2 meals a day” pattern increased over the years. Especially, the “2 meals a day” pattern with “lunch+dinner” increased from 13% in 1998 to 20% in 2009. The percentage of eating breakfast or dinner at home decreased over the years. These results indicate that over the last decade, “destructuration” occurred in Korean children's meal structure in terms of temporal and spatial dimensions. Especially, such alteration was more distinctive in male than female and in the high school-aged group than the elementary or middle school-aged groups. Overall, the difference of meal structure between genders and residential areas became smaller while the difference among age groups became larger over the years. (Korean J Community Nutr 17(1): 109~118, 2012)

Keywords: KEY WORDS; children; adolescent; meal structure; meal pattern; destructuration

Table 1.

General characteristics of the subjects¹⁾

Table 2.

Average numbers of eating events in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

Fig. 1.

Distribution of number of meals in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾.

Table 3.

Distribution of meal pattern in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

Table 4.

Distribution of eating place in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

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Table 1.

General characteristics of the subjects¹⁾

Characteristics		1998 (n = 1,891)	2009 (n = 1,627)	Total (n = 3,518)	p-value²
			%
Gender	Male	52.0	53.1	52.5	0.551
Gender	Female	48.0	46.9	47.5	0.551
Age group	Elementary school-aged	46.1	44.9	45.5	0.004
	Middle school-aged	23.9	29.7	26.8
	High school-aged	30.0	25.5	27.7
Residential area	Rural area	20.7	15.1	17.8	0.140
Residential area	Urban area	79.3	84.9	82.2	0.140
			Mean ± SE
Family size		4.27 ± 0.03	554.23 ± 50.035	554.25 ± 50.02	0.460
House hold income (10,000 won/month)		158.98 ± 5.32	372.97 ± 36.17	267.08 ± 19.21	< 0.001

1) Weights for nutrition surveys were applied for all estimates.

2) by chi-square test or t-test

Table 2.

Average numbers of eating events in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

Gender							Age group					Residential area
Classification	Male		Female		Elementary school-aged		Middle school-aged		High school-aged		Rural		Urban		Total
	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009
	(n=984)	(n=839)	(n=907)	(n=788)	(n=911)	(n=889)	(n=448)	(n=425)	(n=532)	(n=313)	(n=610)	(n=261)	(n=1,281)	(n=1,366)	(n=1,891)	(n=1,627)
Mean±SE
Total	4.36 ± 0.06	4.61 ± 0.06	4.27 ± 0.06	4.50 ± 0.07	4.51 ± 0.07	7 4.83 ± 0.06	4.24 ± 0.07	4.37 ± 0.09	4.07 ± 0.07 4	4.29 ± 0.09	4.13 ± 0.09	4.58 ± 0.12	4.36 ± 0.06	4.56 ± 0.06	4.31 ± 0.05	4.56 ± 0.05
p-value²⁾	< 0.004		< 0.012		< 0.001		< 0.225		< 0.060		< 0.004		< 0.025		< 0.001
Meal	2.81 ± 0.02	2.67 ± 0.02	2.74 ± 0.02	2.65 ± 0.02	2.86 ± 0.02	2 2.80 ± 0.02	2.76 ± 0.02	2.60 ± 0.03	2.65 ± 0.03 2	2.47 ± 0.04	2.72 ± 0.03	2.64 ± 0.05	2.79 ± 0.02	2.66 ± 0.02	2.77 ± 0.01	2.66 ± 0.02
p-value²⁾	< 0.001		< 0.004		< 0.012		< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.141		< 0.001		< 0.001
Snack	1.55 ± 0.06	1.94 ± 0.06	1.53 ± 0.06	1.85 ± 0.06	1.65 ± 0.07	7 2.03 ± 0.06	1.47 ± 0.07	1.77 ± 0.08	1.42 ± 0.07 1	1.82 ± 0.08	1.40 ± 0.09	1.94 ± 0.11	1.58 ± 0.06	1.89 ± 0.05	1.54 ± 0.05	1.90 ± 0.05
p-value²⁾	< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.004		< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.001

1) Weights for nutrition surveys were applied for all estimates

2) by t-test

Fig. 1.

Distribution of number of meals in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾.

Table 3.

Distribution of meal pattern in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

Gender							Age group					Residential Area
Meal²⁾	Male		Female		Elementary school-aged		Middle school-aged		High school-aged		Rural		Urban		Total
pattern	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009
	(n = 984)	(n = 839)	(n = 907)	(n = 788)	(n = 911)	(n = 889)	(n = 448)	(n = 425)	(n = 532)	(n = 313)	(n = 610)	(n = 261)	(n = 1,281)	(n = 1,366)	(n = 1,891)	(n = 1,627)
									%
B + L + D	80.1	69.8	75.7	67.4	85.6	80.6	76.8	63.7	67.2	53.5	74.1	66.7	79.0	69.1	78.0	68.7
B + L	3.5	2.9	4.2	5.5	2.9	3.0	3.0	3.6	5.9	6.6	4.2	3.1	3.7	4.3	3.8	4.1
B + D	3.5	3.1	4.0	5.8	2.6	3.8	4.2	4.8	5.3	5.0	6.6	4.7	3.0	4.3	3.8	4.4
L + D	11.8	21.1	13.1	18.4	7.7	11.9	14.1	24.2	18.4	28.7	12.8	22.7	12.4	19.3	12.5	19.8
Others	1.0	3.0	3.0	2.8	1.2	0.6	1.9	3.6	3.2	6.3	2.3	2.8	1.9	3.0	2.0	2.9
p-value³⁾	< 0.001		0.026		0.052		0.005		0.002		0.062		< 0.001		< 0.001

1) Weights for nutrition surveys were applied for all estimates, 2) B: Breakfast, L: Lunch, D: Dinner, Others: ≤ 1 meal, 3) by chi-square test

Table 4.

Distribution of eating place in 1998 and in 2009¹⁾

Gender							Age group					Residential Area
Location	Male		Female		Elementary school-aged		Middle school-aged		High school-aged		Rural		Urban		Total
	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009	1998	2009
	(n = 984)	(n = 839)	(n = 907)	(n = 788)	(n = 911)	(n = 889)	(n = 448)	(n = 425)	(n = 532)	(n = 313)	(n = 610)	(n = 261)	(n = 1,281)	) (n = 1,366)	(n = 1,891)	(n = 1,627)
Breakfast									%
Skipped	12.7	23.8	15.4	21.0	8.7	12.5	15.7	27.4	20.8	34.2	14.7	24.7	13.8	22.1	14.0	22.5
Home²⁾	85.0	74.0	83.1	76.6	90.5	86.7	82.2	71.1	75.7	59.8	83.1	71.9	84.3	75.8	84.1	75.2
Away from home³⁾	2.3	2.3	1.5	2.4	0.8	0.8	2.1	1.5	3.5	6.0	2.2	3.5	1.8	2.1	1.9	2.3
p-value⁴⁾	< 0.001		0.025		0.070		0.001		< 0.001		0.048		< 0.001		< 0.001
Lunch
Skipped	4.1	4.6	5.9	7.5	3.6	4.0	4.9	6.3	7.2	9.2	7.7	6.5	4.3	5.9	5.0	6.0
Home²⁾	32.0	34.2	24.8	34.0	25.9	30.9	26.5	36.1	34.3	37.3	28.5	32.8	28.6	34.3	28.6	34.1
Away from home³⁾	63.9	61.2	69.2	58.5	70.5	65.1	68.5	57.6	58.5	53.5	63.8	60.7	67.2	59.8	66.5	59.9
p-value⁴⁾	< 0.082		0.005		0.299		0.056		< 0.416		0.630		< 0.066		< 0.079
Dinner
Skipped	4.1	4.8	6.2	6.9	3.4	3.5	4.5	6.1	8.2	9.4	5.8	4.9	4.9	5.9	5.1	5.8
Home²⁾	87.7	77.9	81.6	79.3	92.7	86.9	85.6	78.9	72.0	63.4	86.1	79.6	84.5	78.4	84.8	78.6
Away from home³⁾	8.2	17.3	12.2	13.8	3.9	9.6	9.9	14.9	19.8	27.2	8.1	15.5	10.6	15.7	10.1	15.7
p-value⁴⁾	< 0.001		0.604		0.001		0.102		< 0.061		0.008		< 0.006		< 0.001

1) Weights for nutrition surveys were applied for all estimates

2) Includes home, neighbors’ houses, and relatives’ houses

3) Includes institutions (including schools), restaurants, snack bars, convenience stores, bakeries, ect.

4) by chi-square test