Evaluation of diet quality according to the eating-out patterns of preschoolers and school-aged children in South Korea: based on data from the 2016–2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey / 한국영양학회지

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study examined the eating-out patterns of Korean infants and school-aged children and compared diet quality. @*Methods@#Data were obtained from the 2016–2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were 306 children aged 3 to 11 years old that ate dinner at restaurants. Percentage energy intakes of 24 food groups were calculated, and cluster analysis was used to identify eating-out patterns. Diet quality was assessed by calculating percentage energy and nutrient intakes using one-third of the 2015 Dietary Reference Intakes for Korean (KDRIs), nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR), mean adequacy ratio (MAR), and index of nutritional quality (INQ). @*Results@#Cluster analysis identified 2 eating-out patterns, that is, a ‘rice-centered’ (53%) and a ‘mixed diet’ (47%) pattern. For those with the mixed diet pattern, ratios of carbohydrates, protein, and fat to total calories were 48:20:31, whereas for the rice-centered pattern, ratios were 62:15:21 (p < 0.001). Intakes of energy and most nutrients in the mixed diet pattern were excessive, but the intakes of the most nutrients in the rice-centered pattern were much lower than their KDRIs. MARs were higher for the mixed diet pattern than the rice-centered pattern (0.74 vs. 0.66) (p < 0.001), and INQs for vitamin C (p = 0.007) and calcium (p = 0.018) were lower for the rice-centered pattern, whereas INQ for iron (p = 0.003) was lower for the mixed diet pattern. @*Conclusion@#The quality of meals for infants and school-aged children depended on eating-out patterns, but the rice-centered and mixed diet patterns both failed to provide an appropriately balanced meal pattern. The results of this study suggest that healthy menus need to be developed for children in restaurants.