Dietary Assessment Using Dietary Pattern Analysis of Middle School Students in Seoul

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study were to identify dietary patterns of Korean middle school students and to investigate the characteristics of dietary intake of subjects with different dietary pattern. Three-day diet records were obtained from 163 male and 155 female 7th graders in Seoul, Korea. Food items from the diet records were aggregated into 22 food groups before subjected to factor analysis. Four dietary patterns emerged from factor analysis with different factor score. Cluster analysis using factor score classified subjects into three groups named 'Traditional' (n = 42), 'Westernized' (n = 135), and 'Intermediate' (n = 145). Major nutrient intake and dietary quality assessed by NAR (Nutrients Adequacy Ratio), MAR (Mean Adequacy Ratio), DDS (Dietary Diversity Score), and DVS (Dietary Variety Score) of the three groups were compared. Mean energy intakes of three groups were 1783, 1916, 1578 kcal in Traditional, Westernized, and Intermediate diet group respectively. Differences in nutrient intake of the groups were significant in all nutrients except vitamin B1. Percent energy from fat was significantly higher in Westernized and Intermediate diet group, and cholesterol intake of Westernized diet group was higher than 300 mg. NARs of most nutrients were higher in Traditional and Westernized than Intermediate diet group except vitamin E. Traditional and Westernized diet groups had the highest MAR of fourteen nutrients. DDS was the highest in Westernized and DVS was the highest in Traditional and Westernized diet group. Traditional diet groups had 22% of energy consumption from breakfast, significantly higher than other diet groups. In conclusion, these results suggest that Korean teenagers with Traditional diet pattern have lower diet in % energy from fat, diversity of food and regularity of meals. Future studies need to focus on the relationship between dietary patterns and health status of Korean teenagers.