Awareness and perceived necessity of dietary guidelines among urban Koreans by gender.

We examined an urban population's awareness of dietary guidelines to determine whether they perceived them to be necessary, and identified the factors affecting this awareness and perceived necessity. Data were collected via physical examinations and face-to-face interviews. Health indicators were collected from health examinations, and information on individual characteristics, including awareness, perceived necessity, and dietary status were obtained from the interviews. The subjects' sociodemographic, health and dietary status were examined as potential factors influencing awareness and perceived necessity. Descriptive statistics, contingency tables, and logistic regression modeling were used in the analysis. Low awareness of the dietary guidelines was displayed by the elderly and poorly educated individuals, and those without a spouse. Most people who were not aware of the dietary guidelines thought the guidelines unnecessary. Males with hypertension and lower hemoglobin levels, and females with less education had low awareness. Elderly females with lower bone density had less perceived necessity. Males and females with poor dietary status reported low perceived necessity.

Dining-out behaviors of residents in Chuncheon city, Korea, in comparison to the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey 2001.

Dining-out behavior is associated not only with socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, education, occupation, residence, and marital status, but also with individual preferences, such as eating-out activities, interests, and opinions. We investigated dining-out behaviors and their associated factors. Announcements by health practioners and the Chief of Dong Office were used to recruit 739 residents (217 males and 522 females) in Chuncheon, Korea. Information on the frequency and reasons for eating out, the standards for meal selection, and the overall satisfaction with restaurants, based on taste, nutrition, amount, price, service, sanitation, and subsidiary facilities of restaurants, was obtained through personal interviews with a structured questionnaire. Among all respondents, 46.3% of subjects ate outside of the home once or twice a month, and 33.8% reported that they ate out only a few times a year, or never. This was much higher than the national average of 52.0% as reported by the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHNS) in 2001. The frequency of eating out differed significantly according to age (p=0.001), family income (p<0.001), residential area (p<0.001), and educational level (p<0.001). The most common reasons for dining out were meetings (46.7%), followed by special celebrations (15.4%), and enjoyment (11.2%). Korean food (55.3%) was the most frequently selected type of meal when eating out, and food was most often selected based on personal preferences (41.4%) and taste (29.8%); only 5.5% and 7.7% of subjects considered nutrition or other factors (e.g., sanitation), respectively. The results showed that the frequency of eating out for Chuncheon residents was much lower than the national average; in addition, eating-out behaviors depended on the residents' socio-demographic and personal characteristics.