ABSTRACT
In this study, the authors surveyed the dietary habits of all elementary school students registered with the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education using an online questionnaire called the Dietary Screening Test (DST). The DST consists of 36 items, and these were divided into 5 factors: life rhythm, meal quality, eating development, eating temperament characteristics, and eating habit characteristics. Data were collected from 153,017 students attending 304 schools in Busan, and the responses of 4,020 were included in the analysis.The study was undertaken to document growth and development and diagnose nutrition and dietary problems to provide basic data for the development of customized nutrition education and counseling programs. Results showed that 13.5% and 14.3% of participants were classified as overweight or required weight management for obesity, respectively; 6.7% were underweight. Additionally, 37.0% and 9.5% of children required parental attention at bedtime and sleeping hours, and 14.2% ate too quickly or too slowly. Furthermore, food group consumptions were unbalanced, 25.0% and 64.4% of participants ate grains and protein less than twice a day, respectively, and 72.3% and 74.5% ate kimchi and vegetables less than twice a day, respectively. In contrast, 28.8% of respondents consumed sweet snacks daily or 5∼6 times weekly. These findings highlight the need for a standardized school nutrition counseling manual and individually customized nutrition counseling programs to address the nutrition and dietary problems of elementary school students in Busan.
ABSTRACT
Purpose@#Childhood obesity has become a social problem due to the social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study aimed to identify the dietary problems of obese children through various dietary assessment methods and to confirm the usefulness of each method. @*Methods@#The subjects were 88 students in the 4th to 6th grade of elementary school who participated in the nutrition camp organised by the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, 2020. To evaluate dietary problems and assess diet quality, 24-hour meal records, monthly food intake frequency, and Dietary Screening Test (DST) data were analyzed. @*Results@#Of the subjects, 15.7%, 30.3%, and 53.9% were normal weight, overweight, and obese, respectively. The average age was 11.77 ± 0.77 years and the average body mass index was 23.96 ± 3.01 kg/m 2 . It was observed from the 24-hour meal record method that the overweight and obese subject groups consumed fewer green vegetables (p < 0.001) and white vegetables (p < 0.01) than the normal weight group. In the monthly food intake frequency method, the consumption of ramen (p < 0.01), snacks (p < 0.05), and sausages (p < 0.05) were high in the obese group, and that of anchovies, broccoli, and sweet pumpkin was high in the normal group (p < 0.05). The comparative data from the DST revealed that the overweight and obese groups had less vegetable intake than the normal weight group (p < 0.01) and had higher intakes of dairy products, fast food, and sweet snacks (p < 0.05). @*Conclusion@#The usefulness of each method in the dietary evaluation of obese children was confirmed. To address the problem of obesity, it is necessary to evaluate the dietary problem and approach it with a customized solution tailor-made for the individual subject.