Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the nutrition intakes and factors related to dietary behaviors according to age in female. The subjects included 579 females aged 15 - 59 years. This survey was conducted using a selfadministered questionnaire to obtain data about eating behaviors, living habits, eating disorders by EAT-26 (Eating Attitude Test-26), and nutrition knowledge. In younger women aged 15 - 20 years, the living habits related to health such as smoking, drinking and exercising were undesirable. In addition, the younger women group had significantly higher levels of skipping meals and frequency of eating snacks compared to the older women group and their eating times were not regular. And they showed a lower score of health eating index by mini dietary assessment (MDA). Although, all age groups consumed energy, Ca, Fe, and thiamin below the Korean RDA; especially, in adolescent, Ca intakes (67.1% RDA) were extremely low. In addition, mean score of EAT-26 was significantly higher in young women aged 15 - 29 years than older women. Also, they had rather lower levels of accuracy and perception for nutrition knowledge compared to older age group. These results suggested that Korean adolescent had undesirable nutritional intakes and attitude, and nutrition knowledge, indicating inadequate eating behaviors. These poor dietary behaviors can affect the health status. Therefore, the nutrition counseling and education to help people to have correct nutrition knowledge and to form better eating habits needs to be established.

• Keywords: nutrient intake; dietary behavior; nutrition knowledge; age groups