Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutritional intake and dietary habits of women divers in Tongyoung area and to support the guideline for the improvement of their dietary life style by a validation of a Computerized Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionaire. Compared to the women at Jeju Island, the Tongyoung divers showed similar heights (154.6 +/-0.8 cm), weights (53.5 +/-1.0 kg) and BMIs (23.3 +/-0.4), but they showed especially high levels of body fat (33.8 +/-0.8). Their dietary habits showed they usually skipped lunch, but ate too much food at once, which may represent the dietary habits shown by obese people. Over 40% of the divers were taking some nutritious food or complementary food for health, without realizing the efficacy of these foods. The analysis of nutritional intake showed that all of average daily nutrients intakes of those below 50 years were higher than those of the Korean RDA. In the case of those above 50 years , it was shown that the average daily nutrients intakes were also higher than those of the Korean RDA except for energy (94.5%) and calcium (82.1%). However, some individual divers showed lower nutrients intakes than 75% of RDA for calcium, iron, Vitamin A and Vitamin B2. Also, excessive intakes of phosphorous and sodium could be a dietary problem. There was no correlation between BMI or percentage of body fat and energy, CHO, protein or fat. These results can provide the nutritional information for this special community, women divers, to improve their health.

• Keywords: women divers; nutrient intakes; dietary habits