OBJECTIVES The rapidly changing dietary environment requires a study that addresses the status of middle and high school students regarding their consumption of convenience food sold at convenience stores. METHODS This study examined adolescents' lifestyle patterns, dietary habits, and status of consuming convenience food at convenience stores. A total of 659 students (329 middle school students and 330 high school students) in Incheon participated in this questionnaire survey. RESULTS The mean age of the subjects was 13.7 years for the middle school students, and 16.6 years for the high school students. The gender and grade distributions in the middle and high school students were similar. The middle school students reported that they spent more time using electronic devices (p<0.001) or watching TV (p<0.001) than high school students. More than 60% of middle and high school students consumed convenience food at convenience stores without statistical difference between the two groups. The main reason for consuming convenience food from convenience stores was its convenience followed by taste in both groups. Despite the high frequency of consuming convenience food, the students rarely checked the nutrition labels at the time of purchase. On the other hand, they were still most concerned about the nutritional value of the convenience foods when they consumed convenience foods. The most frequently consumed convenience food was ramyon in both groups. Significant positive correlations were observed between the frequency of consuming convenience food at convenience stores and lifestyle factors for the middle school students, including monthly allowance, time for using electronic devices, and number of private lessons. For the high school students, however, the only monthly allowance had a significant positive correlation with the consumption. CONCLUSIONS Adolescents are increasingly exposed to convenience foods and relevant nutritional issues are a concern. Therefore, a dietary environment that is adequately formed for the healthy development of youth as well as systematic nutrient education that is appropriately designed for both middle and high school students is required.
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OBJECTIVES The study was performed to investigate the relationship between snack intake and oral health behavior in middle school students in Gyeonggi-do area. METHODS The survey questionnaire was recorded by middle school students from July 6 to August 24, 2011. The questionnaire included items on general characteristics, snack intake status, and oral health behavior. Among collected survey questionnaire, a total of 620 questionnaires (320 males and 300 females) were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 program. RESULTS Frequencies of snack and beverage intakes were significantly higher in males than in females (p < 0.001). Oral health behavior was significantly higher in students with lower snack intake compared to those with higher or average snack intake (p < 0.05). Oral health behavior for tooth brushing and toothbrush care were significantly higher in females than in males (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Oral health behavior score that reflected better oral health of the subjects were higher as the snack intake was lower. Oral health behavior score was higher in females than in males. We conclude that the contents for oral health and nutrition education focused on snack intake need to be developed to induce changes in oral health behavior in middle school students.
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OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to compare dietary habits, weight control behaviors, eating disorder risk and depression among middle school girls who were at various stages of dieting. METHODS Subjects were 391 girls attending a middle school in Kyeonggido, Korea. All the information was gathered by self-administered questionnaires. Eating disorder risk and depression were assessed using EAT-26 and PHQ-9, respectively. Data were compared among 4 groups; no interest in a diet (N=112), had experienced dieting (N=86), on diet currently (N=71), and plan to diet (N=122). RESULTS A higher number of students currently on diet tended to be unsatisfied with their own weight (p < 0.01), overestimated their weight (p < 0.05), and weighed own body frequently (p < 0.001), compared to those with only experienced dieting in the past or those who plan to diet, despite similar weights and body mass index. The students who experienced dieting in the past or those who plan to diet appeared to have several undesirable as well as desirable dietary habits and their risk of eating disorder was significantly more prevalent compared to those without an interest in dieting (p < 0.01), although significantly less prevalent compared to those currently on a diet. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that unnecessary dieting is common among middle school girls and providing proper education with regard to healthy weights is needed to enhance their physical as well as psychological wellbeing.
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The purpose of this study was to verify the difference of middle school students' eating disorder behavior and scholastic adjustment according to the gender and weight group and evaluate correlations between their eating disorder behavior and scholastic adjustment. A survey was conducted in middle school second graders attending five schools located in Seoul. Results from 355 questionnaire sheets were utilized for statistical analysis, and the results were gained as below: With regard to eating disorder behavior by gender, female students showed more eating disorder behavior than male students (p < 0.01); however, scholastic adjustment did not indicate significant differences by gender. According to the result of analyzing scholastic adjustment according to the weight group, the obese group showed lower scholastic adjustment (p < 0.05) and adjustment to studying (p < 0.01) than other groups; however, the eating disorder behavior, attachment to school, and adjustment to school did not indicate significant differences. According to the results of analyzing scholastic adjustment by eating disorder group, the normal group showed higher adjustment to studying than the risky group (p < 0.01). And scholastic adjustment, attachment to school, and adjustment to school did not indicate significant differences. The eating disorder behavior showed negative relationship with adjustment to studying. They showed more eating disorder behavior, their adjustment to studying became lower. Therefore, it is necessary to provide nutritional education at home and at school for them to have appropriate dietary habits as well as health education for them to maintain normal weight.
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The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for nutritional education for juveniles' desirable vegetable intake by analyzing their vegetable intake, dietary habit and nutrient intakes according to gender of middle school students in Chungnam. The average age of the subjects was 15.0, height was 162.5 cm, weight was 53.5 kg and their average BMI was 20.1 kg/m2. The frequency of eating supper in girls was lower than that in boys. Many respondents answered that a meal-time was 10~20 minutes. Without gender difference, more than 90% respondents thought that vegetables were good for health. As for the preference of vegetable, subjects responded, "I am in the middle", "I like them", "I dislike them", "I like them very much", and "I dislike them very much" in order, without gender difference. The frequent eaten leaf vegetable was Chinese cabbage, the frequent eaten fruit vegetable was cucumber, and the frequent eaten root vegetable was radish. The favorite leaf vegetable was lettuce, the favorite fruit vegetable was corn, and the favorite root vegetable was sweet potato. The preference degrees of taro and ginger were very low. The reasons why they liked a vegetable were that it was delicious and they ate it at home often. In addition, the reason why they disliked vegetables was that they are untasty in flavor or texture and it showed that many students had a prejudice that vegetables were untasty. The intakes of plant protein, dietary fiber, ash and INQs of dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin C, folate, vitamin E in the group with high preference of vegetables were significantly higher than those of low preference group. The study results indicate that intake frequency and preference of root vegetables in juveniles are low and the major reasons of these results are taste and eating experience of vegetables. In addition, the intake amounts of dietary fiber and folate are poor in the subjects with low preference of vegetables. Therefore, families and schools should make efforts that juveniles can recognize the importance of vegetable intake and select various vegetables properly through the development of cooking methods and systematic nutrition education.
In order to give basic data to teenager's healthcare, we investigated the food habits according to BMI (Body Mass Index), life style, dietary related self-efficacy and food intake through conducting a research surveying 732 middle school students of the Kwang-ju and Chonnam areas. The results of this study were compared groups in under weight (UW), normal weight (NW), and overweight (OW) groups according to BMI levels. In the male students, height was significantly differently in the UW group as 158.2 +/- 0.7 cm compared to other NW and OW groups respectively as 163.7 +/- 0.6 cm and 162.6 +/- 0.7 cm but in the female students there was no significantly difference within groups. Weight was significantly different between the groups in the male students, whereas there were minor differences in the female students. The average of BMI was 20.7 +/- 0.1 on the male students and 20.6 +/- 0.1 on the female students which were all within the average, and their obesity was increased as the school grade was higher. Under less than 30,000 won of pocket money was dominating, and most of the students were in a nuclear family. In all male and female students, the inactive hours like watching TV and using computers had no differences between groups. The difference between groups was minor on breakfast time and most of the students thought their problems on unbalanced diet. There was significant difference in the OW group in female students as they thought their problems on unbalanced diets. The frequency of snack was significantly low in the OW group of male students but there were no differences in snack and eating-out food. All students chose fruits as snack food and Korean-style food as eating out food. The OW group in male students were significantly low in the dietary related self-efficacy when they were with their families and feeling depressed but there were no differences in female students between groups. When all students were getting higher BMI, they evaluated themselves badly in their self-dietary habits. Also the more male students had non-physical activity time, the less they had the dietary related self-efficacy and the more female students had physical activity time, the higher they had the dietary related self-efficacy. In conclusion, the OW group had good habits in physical activities for weekends, meal times, frequency of snack consumption but it showed undesirable when they were low in dietary related self-efficacy. Therefore we will provide the systematic nutrition education to them through this study.
This study investigated the association between the weight status of middle school students and the various weightrelated characteristics including desired weight, weight perception, weight-related practice, physical activity, and overeating behavior. Questionnaires were administered to 473 middle school students (178 boys and 295 girls) in Daejeon. Boys and girls were divided into three groups respectively; (1) underweight (BMI < 5th percentile) (2)normal weight (5th percentile < or = BMI < 85th percentile) (3) overweight (BMI > or = 85th percentile). Using BMI calculated from measured height and weight, 14.0% of boys and 6.8% of girls were underweight, and 16.3% of boys and 14.2% of girls were overweight. However, among this sample of students, 38.4% of boys and 13.6% of girls perceived themselves as underweight and 29.4% of boys and 44.9% of girls perceived themselves as overweight. We found that overweight students reported their body weights lower and their heights higher compared to nonoverweight students, resulting in an underestimation of BMI. Based on desired BMI, 79.9% of the girls desired to be underweight and 73.0% of the boys desired to be normal weight. Overweight or normal weight students were less satisfied with their body weights than underweight students. Girls had more weight control experience and concern compared to boys. Overweight girls spent longer times in watching TV compared to non-overweight girls (p < 0.001) and had more overeating behaviors (p < 0.05). Overweight students reported that they ate snacks less frequently than non-overweight students, which may be due to their tendency to report less eating. In conclusion, significant gender differences and weight status differences existed in weight perception, weight satisfaction, and weight control experience and concern. Because perception of overweight is likely to lead to unhealthy eating behaviors and weight control, efforts for adolescents to improve accuracy of weight perceptions and to understand the benefits of being healthier are needed.
The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the association of personality preferences and food behavior factors in middle school students. The subjects were 319 boys and girls in a middle school located in Kyunggi province. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess demographic factors, dietary habits and psychosocial factors including self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers. The MMTIC (Murphy-Meisgeier Type Inventory for Children) test was used to assess the personality preferences of the students. Sixty-seven percent of the subjects were extrovert, 53.9% were the sensing type, 76.8% were the feeling type and 81.8% were the perceiving type in personality preferences. The extrovert had higher self-efficacy than the introvert. The feeling type perceived more benefits and fewer barriers than the thinking type. The education levels of the parents, especially mothers, were positively related with self-efficacy and dietary habit scores of the students. The self-efficacy and perceived benefits and barriers were significantly associated with dietary habits of the students (explained variance: 17.9%). Results of this study presented the relationship of character types and parents' education levels on psychosocial food behavior factors and a need for the development of tailored nutrition education program considering these factors.
This study was to investigate the effect of the education about general nutrition knowledge on the acceptance of TV food advertisements in adolescents. Twenty hours of nutrition related education in home economics classes were done during 3 months, to conveniently selected 784 first grade middle school students living in large and small cities and rural areas of Chungnam Province. The education effects were evaluated through questionnaire surveys before and after the education and their comparative analysis. Average TV watching time was 2.92 +/- 1.66 hours per day, which was about one hour longer on weekends. Nearly half of the subjects watched TV mainly after 9 PM. After nutrition education, nutrition knowledge scores of total subjects were significantly increased from 7.73 +/- 2.16 to 10.25 +/- 2.51 with a full score of 16. Food attitude and food habit scores also significantly increased from 32.45 +/- 4.65 (full score 50) to 33.93 +/- 4.68 and from 36.20 +/- 5.70 to 37.29 +/- 5.87, respectively. The general acceptance of TV food advertisements scored 25.25 +/- 4.44 (full score 40) before education and 26.90 +/- 4.55 after education, which was significantly raised by the education. Acceptance scores of TV food advertisements showed significant positive relationships with the scores of nutrition knowledge, food attitudes, and food habits. In addition, TV watching time had negative relationships with nutrition knowledge, food attitudes, and food habits scores, but not with acceptance score of TV food advertisements. The above results suggested that school-based nutrition education improved slightly but significantly the attitude of accepting TV food advertisements maybe through increasing nutrition knowledge and making food attitudes and habits better. Nutrition education focused on the evaluation and acceptance of food advertisements are further needed to improve the TV food advertisement acceptance of adolescents.
The purpose of this study was to investigate nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude and a food habits of middle school students. The study was carried out through questionnaire. The subjects were 431 middle school students (boys 298, girls 133) in Chonbuk area. In nutrition knowledge, there were no significant differences in total scores between boys and girls. However, the girls showed higher score in knowledge of weight control than boys did (p < 0.05). In dietary attitude, there were significant differences in attitude of "balanced meal (p < 0.05)", "sufficient protein intake (p < 0.01)", "food diversity (p < 0.001)" and "overeating (p < 0.01)" between boys and girls. The boys showed better dietary attitudes than the girls did. In food habits, there were significant differences in the rate of skipping breakfast (p < 0.05), the rates of skipping dinner (p < 0.01), the frequency of snacks (p < 0.05), the type of snacks (p < 0.05) between boys and girls. The girls showed higher rates of skipping a meal and frequency of snacks than the boys did. It suggests that gender should be considered for an effective and practical nutrition education for middle school students to improve dietary attitudes and food habits.
The purpose of this study was to investigate fast-food consumption and it's nutrient density, and the correlation between subject's characteristics and consumption frequency of fast-foods among middle school students. The questionnaires were distributed to 150 male and 190 female students in Cheongju city. The data were analyzed using SAS and statistics used were percent of frequency, chi-test, t-test, and pearson's correlation coefficient. The main reasons for using fast-food restaurants were 'good taste' and 'convenience'. The major concerns when the subjects choose fast-foods were 'taste (65.9%), price (20.3%) and 'nutrition' (6.0%). The consumption pattern of fast-foods go as follows: twice a month (42.3%), once a week (31.5%), and less than once a week. The number of fast food items that the subjects ate for one meal was two (46.0%) or three (33.2%). The most frequently chosen combination of foods for number of two choices was beefburger and cola . The mean average energy intake from fast foods for one meal was 620.7 kcal for male, 504.5 kcal for female. The energy ratio of carbohydrate :protein :fat from fast foods was 49 :14 :43, which means fat intake is much higher than recommended level (20%). Fiber was appeared to be the lowest on the nutrient density which was 17.7% of the recommended level for Koreans, vitamin C was next (22.8% for male, 20.7% for female). In mineral, iron was the lowest (71.8% for male, 67.1% for female), and protein was over 100% for both males and females. Frequency of fast food intake was positively correlated with eating frequency of the salty, the sweets, ham, caffeine containing foods, instant noodles, and cookies. In conclusion, frequent consumption of fast foods can lead unbalanced nutrient intakes for middle school students, and those who consumed fast foods frequently showed undesirable food habits in their daily meal. Therefore, nutrition education for middle school students should be needed to encourage them to choose more nutritious food and have healthier dietary pattern.
This research was to investigate the operation of contracted food service management and menu preferences of middle school students in Seoul. Questionnaires were distributed between Dec. 1 and 20, 2000 in 10 middle schools. Statistical data analyses were completed using the SAS package, including the mean, standard deviation and frequency analysis. The results can be summarized as follows: The average number of meals per middle school was 1,000 and only lunch was served in each school. In terms of facilities and equipment, low rates of the possession of cooking equipment and food carts were the major hindrance to work and production efficiency. The students' main demands were taste, sanitation, variety of food, the introduction of brand foods, the price of foods, and the speed of reaction to their dissatisfaction. Most of the schools provided rice for lunch, while the students preferred noodles, mandu and bread. beef-rib soup was preferred to broth. For side dishes, fish, roasted meat and fried foods were highly favored, along with processed foods, with low preferences for vegetables. The middle school students favored fruits. Lastly, they requested that the quality of school meals be improved through the development and supply of various desserts.
Adolescent smoking has been a great concern with respect to it's causing more serious health problems than adult smoking. The smoking status and habits of middle school students were studied using anonymous questionnaires, and their dietary habits were compared. Ninety-two of 4l4 students (22.2%) had experienced smoking, and 62.0% of them began in primary school, mostly out of curiosity. The most plausible reasons for smoking were 'boredom' and/or 'stress reduction'. Dietary habits were generally inadequate in the smoking group. Compared with the non-smoking group, the smoking group paid less attention to a balanced diet, more skipped breakfasts, more had irregular meal times and fewer snacked. There was no significant difference between the smoking and non-smoking groups in food intake frequency, except of sweet foods and caffeinated foods, which were more frequent consumed by the smoking group. These results suggest that more attention needs to be paid to nutrition and health education programs in elementary schools and also that proper support programs for smoking by themselves.
This study was conducted to evaluate the eating behavior and to analyze the various factors affecting eating behavior among middle school students. The subjents consisted of 212 middle school students(106 boys and 106 girls between 13-14 years) residing in Seoul. A questionnaire was used as the questionnaire consisted of four parts : the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects, value toward food and nutrition, diet diversity(the number of food items) and eating behavior. Results showed that fifty three point five percent of males and fifty seven percent of females skipped breakfast. The main reason for skipping breakfast was shortage of time. Fifty five percent of the total number of subjects stated that they had more than two plasant meals a day. The number of food items eaten was significantly higher in males than in females. In only 16.4% of total subjects(18.5% of male and 14.2% of female), the primary pursuit in having meals was not to satisfy hunger but to consider nutrition and health. The eating behavior of the adolescents showed that 65% of the subjects had a 'good' eating behavior score and 17.4% had scores of 'excellent' and 'poor' respectively. The existence of parents, the economic level of the family, and concern of health and nutrition affected the eating behavior score. The less the subject skipped breakfast, the greater they placed a value toward food and nutrition. Value toward food and nutrition had a significant influence on their eating behavior. Those who placed a value toward food and nutrition had a higher eating behavior. Those who placed a value toward food and nutrition had a higher eating eating behavior. As a result of the multiple regression analysis, factors affecting eating behavior were 'pleasant meal' , 'the value toward food and nutrition' and 'the numbers of food items' in order(R2=0.2984).