A Comparative Study on Dietary Life and Recognition of Diet Related Factors in Elementary, Middle and High School Students

Yi, Bo Sook

Abstract

This Study was carried out to investigate dietary life and recognition of diet related factors in elemantary, middle and high school students. This study was surveyed by questionnaires and data were analyzed by SPSS program. Comparative analysis was conducted according to three school student groups(elementary childrens, middle school students, high school students). The subjects were 1,886 school students(female 893, male 959) of 51 schools in nationalwide region. The Distribution of subjects was elementary school childrens 544, middle school students 661 and high school students 681. The results are summarized as follows. Only Sixty percent of the subjects had breakfast regularly. About one forth of the subjects had the habit of skipping breakfast or eating 2-3 times per week. Pricipal reasons of skipping breakfast were 'busy'(50.7%) and 'not delicious or poor appetite'(31.0%). Regularity of having breakfast and reasions of skipping breakfast were significant differences according to school student groups(p<0.001 respectively). About half of the subjects didn't have sufficient amounts in breakfast. Most subjects(92.1%) had lunch regularly by virtue of school lunch service. One forth of the subjects had dinner irregularly. Pricipal reasons of skipping dinner were 'not delicious'(41.7%), 'busy'(15.1%) and 'weight loss'(14.3%). Regularity of having dinner and reasons of skipping dinner were significant differences according to school student groups(p<0.01, p<0.001 respectively). The most delicious meal was dinner in 56.7% of the subjects and lunch in 37.1% of the subjects. There was significant difference in recognition of most delicious meal according to school student groups(p<0.001). Only ten percent of the subjects thought that nutrition education was not needed. Diettitian was recognized as nutrition educator in sixty percent of the subjects. Only 5 percent of the subject recognized teacher as nutrition educator. There were not significant differences in most delicious meal and nutrition educator according to operation type of school lunch service. The findings suggested continuous attention and guidance for healthy dietary life and necessity of nutrition education for both school students and their parents.