The purpose of this study was to examine female college students for their dietary habits, eating behaviors and food frequency at the convenience store according to their residential types and thereby, provide some fundamental resources for nutrition ...
The purpose of this study was to examine female college students for their dietary habits, eating behaviors and food frequency at the convenience store according to their residential types and thereby, provide some fundamental resources for nutrition education for female college students at transitional period from adolescents to adults for managing their diets independently.
After preliminary survey with ten subjects college students, the self-administered questionnaires were distributed to female college students in Seoul and Chungchungnam-do. Two Hundred and forty surveys were obtained for the final analysis.
As a result of calculating subjects' BMI, it was found that 71.2% of them were in normal range, while 8.8% of them were overweight. Thirty eight subjects (15.8%) were in underweight range, which was similar to the underweight rate (16.3%) of the women (aged 19 ~ 29) in 2015 National Health Statistics. In terms of subjects' dietary habits, their frequency of eating out was significantly (p<0.05) different according to their residential types. Forty nine subjects (39.8%) who were living with their parents eat out less than once a week, 22.4% for those who were living in a dormitory or a boarding house, and 22.0% for those who were living alone, accordingly. Forty eight (92.3%) of those who were living alone, 88.7% of those who were living in the dormitory or boarding house and 73.1% of those who were living with their parents were skipping breakfast; the rate of skipping breakfast according to the residential types was significantly different (p<0.05).
Subjects’ eating behavior scores were significantly different according to the residential types (p<0.05), 29.43 for those who were living with their parents, 28.1 for those living in the dormitory or boarding house, and 27.19 for those who were living alone. Especially, following eating behavior scores were higher in subjects living with their parents than other residential types; 'drink milk or milk products (yogurt, yoplait, etc.,) more than one bottle every day' (p<0.05), 'eat meat, fish, egg, beans or tofu 3 or 4 times every day' (p<0.05), ‘eat vegetables except Kimchi every meal (p<0.01), ‘take a serving of fruit or fruit juice every day (p<0.001), and ‘eat three meals a day' (p<0.05).
The food frequency score at the convenience store was expressed as one when they consume them once a day. According to 2016 Korean Foods Standards Codex of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the foods at the convenience stores were classified as the 'ready-to-eat foods,' the 'instant cooking foods,' and the 'fresh convenience foods.' The ready-to-eat food frequency score was the highest among students living alone (p<0.001), while the fresh convenience food frequency score was the highest among students living with their parents (p<0.001). Among the 'ready-to-eat foods,' the food frequency scores of sandwich (p<0.01), packed lunch (p<0.001), hot-bar & hot-dog (p<0.01) and fish cake (p<0.01) differed significantly according to the subjects' residential types. In case of the ‘fresh convenience foods,' the food frequency score of fruits differed significantly (p<0.001) according to the subjects' residential types.
As a result of analyzing the correlations between the food frequency score at the convenience store and the eating behavioral scores, it was found that the more frequently the subjects eat the convenience foods, the lower their eating behavior score was. (p<0.01), which indicates nutrition education needs on the convenience foods.
As discussed above, female college students' dietary habits, their eating behavior scores and their food frequency at the convenience stores differed significantly according to their residential types. As our society changes rapidly, increasing single-person households potentiates increasing independence in their diet. Younger generation become accustomed to eat alone, and therefore, it is necessary to provide nutrition education program for their healthy diet and food purchasing at the convenience store.