Dietary Habit and Nutrition Knowledge of High School Students in Incheon Area

This study was conducted to provide basic information to design nutrition education materials to establish growing students' dietary habit. 651 high school students(320 boys and 331 girls) were cross‐sectional surveyed in the region of Incheon, one of 5 major cities in Korea. According to their nutrition knowledge test, the students were categorized into 3 groups, 27% of 'high', 32% of 'middle' and 41% of 'low', while 55% of entire students had experienced nutrition education program. The degree of Nutrition knowledge was proven higher among the boys (boys 11.14 point, girls 10.25 point) and the students who experienced nutrition education program (11.17 vs. 10.10). 80% of students had regular meal‐time pattern and 75% of students had breakfast regularly. The ratio of students with unbalanced eating habit was 42%. And for all of these 3 factors, there were meaningful difference between the students experienced nutrition education program and the rest. The students experienced the program had shown higher ratio to have regular meal‐time pattern, to have regular breakfast, to have balanced eating habit. Also they fulfilled better dietary lifestyle then the rest. Most of the students agreed with the essentiality of nutrition education and they preferred an active program including cooking practice by professional nutrition teacher. Therefore, the correlation between nutrition education and students' dietary life was proven and continuous nutrition education programs for growing students are required to enhance their dietary life.