Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate meal management behavior of housewives and to improve their behavior by determining what problems exist. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire in Jinju from October to November in 1999. It was shown that 29.1% of housewives didn't plan food budget, whereas only 5.6% of them did. The reasons for not planning food budget were mostly due to not forming a habit(38.8%), irregularity of prices(19.9%) or irregularity of income(13.8%). The characters of planning food budget and the reasons for not planning were not affected by age, education, monthly income, family size or monthly flood cost. Only 17.8% of meal managers recorded their housekeeping in detail and 47.4% of them wrote only the important things. Recording housekeeping records was affected by age and education. It was found that most meal managers(90.8%) didn't set menu planning and they didn't fuel the need for menu planning. The frequency of food shopping was every two days(36.2%), twice a week(20.9%) or randomly(27.4%), and the places for food shopping were supermarket(49.0%) and traditional market(41.3%). Both were affected by education or age. The quality of food was the main reason(54.6%) far the selection of food shopping place. Important consideration for selection of food and meals was preference of family(47.4%) and this character was affected by education. It was shown that the score of nutrition knowledge was 7.36, and it was affected by education. The results of this study suggest that the government, educators and scientists in nutrition make efforts to develop various levels of practical education programs for meal management and nutrition depending on age, education and community using mass media.

• Keywords: meal management; jinju