Nutrient Intakes, Nutritional Knowledge, Food Habits, and Lifestyle Behaviors of Obese Children

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutrient intakes, nutritional knowledge, food habits, and lifestyle behaviors of moderately or severely obese children living in the Kyonggi-do area. The subjects in this study were 37 obese children with an obesity index higher than 130% in the forth to sixth grades of elementary school. Anthropometric measurements, 24-hour recall of dietary intakes, and a survey on nutritional knowledge, food habits, and lifestyles behavior were conducted in the 37 obese children (25 boys and 12 girls). The average age, body weight, BMI, and Rohrer Index were 12.4 years, 68.6 kg, 29.6 kg/m2, and 194.9 in boys and 12.7 years, 65.7 kg, 29.8 kg/m2, and 201.8 in girls, respectively. The percentage of correct answers on nutritional knowledge and nutritional attitude score/max score were 85.8% and 23.0/50 in boys and 87.0% and 17.5/50 in girls, respectively. Except for calcium (85.3%) in girls and calcium (62.7%) and folic acid (83.3%) in boys, the average daily nutrient intakes percentages of nutrients were greater than the DRIs values (107.9~327.3% in boys and 103.0~416.0% in girls). This study showed the existence of some problems associated with obesity, such as higher frequency of skipping breakfast, irregular meal times, unbalanced diet, lack of intake of some nutrients, low nutritional attitude, lack of physical activity, and time management in obese children. These results suggest that a systematic education program including nutritional education on balanced diet, good eating habits and behaviors, and importance of eating breakfast and meal regularity must be emphasized to improve nutrient intakes and food habits in obese children. Obese children also require a more concentrated program that includes physical activity, weight reduction, and weight maintenance strategies to improve their life habits.