The Comparison in Daily Intake of Nutrients, Quality of Diets and Dietary Habits between Male and Female College Students in Daejeon

Lee, Mee Sook; Kwak, Chung Shil

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the differences in daily nutrient intakes, dietary habits and nutrition knowledge between male and female college students. Male undergraduate students (104 subjects) and female undergraduate students (229 subjects), enrolled at H University in Daejeon, were recruited for this study. The mean age of the subjects was 22.9 year in male and 20.4 year in female students. Daily intakes of energy and nutrients were calculated from the records of one day of dietary food intakes by 24-hour recall method, and general information, dietary habits and attitudes, food intake frequency and food preferences and knowledge for food and nutrition were surveyed through a questionnaire. About 70.1% of male and 66.1% of female students were in the normal range of BMI (18.5 - 23), and 25.2% of male students were over-weighted in contrast to 27.7% of female students were underweight. Males and females were taking 77.2% and 77.9% of RDA for energy, respectively, and 54.8% of male and 48.0% of female students were taking energy under 75% of RDA. Many of them showed deficient intakes of calcium, iron, vitamin A and riboflavin. Average of MAR was 0.75 in male and 0.72 in female students. NAR for calcium, iron, vitamin A and riboflavin in male students were 0.55, 0.69, 0.75 and 0.61, respectively, compared to 0.53, 0.51, 0.70 and 0.67 in female students. The nutrients, which have INQ less than 1, were calcium and riboflavin in male, compared to calcium, iron, and riboflavin in female students. There were no gender differences in meal regularity and meal skipping rates, but female students showed higher rates of skipping dinner than males (p < 0.001). About 50.8% of female students were ingesting snacks 1 - 2 time/day, compared to 27.1% of male students. For the food intake frequency, fruit group was significantly eating more for female than male students (p < 0.001). Though female students got higher scores for nutritional knowledge test (p < 0.01) than male students, they did not show better dietary habits or dietary attitudes than male students actually. Therefore, a more active and actual education program accustomed to the different genders and ages with focus on real changing of dietary behaviors needs to be developed and run in schools and local departments.