A Study on the Characteristics in Dietary Behavior and Dish Preference of Elementary School Children in Seoul and Kangwha Area

This study was conducted to provide current information on dietary behaviors and dish preferences of elementary school children and to suggest guidelines for proper dietary behaviors. To accomplish study objectives survey was executed using the questionnaire for 420 fifth and sixth grade school children, chosen from schools in Kangwha-gun and East River District of Seoul. A questionnaire largely consists of categories including general characteristics, dietary behavior and preferences of the subjects for some dishes. Results showed 30％ of the subjects had breakfast irregularly. A majority of the subjects took Korean style dishes of cooked rice and soup for breakfast. fifty-eight percent of subjects had a regular meal time. Imbalanced diet(avoiding specific flood group thereby causing unbalance in nutrient intake) habit group was estimated to be 47.3%. Twenty one percent had a habit of overeating. In choosing the snack, taste was considered to be a more important factor than nutrition. Advertisement of the snack was shown to be one of the Important factors in selecting the snack. The girls were more concerned about weight control than the boys. Also the girls were likely to rely on the diet to control weight since they exercised only in the physical c1ass while the boys exercised regularly. Generally, children liked animal protein containing foods and the preference for vegetables was low. In order to improve overall dietary behavior, systematic nutrition education programs reflecting sex difference should be developed. Dish preference data would be very useful in selecting substitutive dish for the s[hoof lunch menu to improve imbalanced diet. (J Community Nutrition3(2) : 69∼76, 2001)