A Comparative Study of Unbalanced Eating Habit and Dietary Pattern of middle school students in Incheon area, Korea

This study was conducted to provide basic information about influence of unbalanced eating habit on growing youth's dietary pattern. 728 middle school students(349 boys and 379 girls) were cross‐sectional surveyed in the region of Incheon, one of 5 major cities in Korea, using a questionnaire. In the aggregate, 74% of students had unbalanced eating habit. And the girls had higher ratio of having unbalanced eating habit than the boys. The students with unbalanced eating habit were affected by mass media like TVs when their dietary habits were built (p<.05). And they had sugar‐containing food such as confectionery, chocolate and soft drink frequently between meals (p<.01). Also, they tended to choose food focusing on taste rather than nutritive quality (p<.05). Their food preference found that they preferred meat to vegetables without distinction of gender. As for behavior with school meals, students with unbalanced eating habit tended to leave food when school meal contains food material they disliked, while students with balanced eating habit tended to leave school meals because it was too much (p<.001). Consequently, unbalanced‐eating students tended to leave vegetables significantly more than students with balanced eating habit. Also, students with balanced eating habit indicated higher preference for foods than students with unbalanced eating habit regardless of cooking method and food materials (p<.001). Therefore, school meals containing various food materials and nutrition education to correct students’ eating habit are required to let growing youth improve each of their dietary life.