Abstract
To investigate the importance and practice of well-being related dietary life pattern such as purchasing food materials, food habits and eating out, a survey was conducted by questionnaire and 5-point Likert score in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do, September, 2004 and April, 2005. The responses of 732 housewives who were over 40 years were analyzed by SPSS package program. The results were as follows. Most of them were 40-49 years(74.4%), graduated highschool (66.6%) and their family type was nuclear family type(81.4%). Almost half of them had full-time job (37.1%) and part time job (15.4%). The average importance score of 'food habits', 'purchasing food materials' and 'eating out' were $4.15{\pm}0.91,\;4.06{\pm}0.96\;and\;3.25{\pm}1.01$ respectively. But the average practice score of 'food habits' was greater($3.58{\pm}1.06$) than 'purchasing food materials ($3.19{\pm}1.19$)' and 'eating out($2.54{\pm}1.05$)'. Among 5 types of 'food habits', the type of 'cut down on eating fast food' had the greatest score of importances ($4.31{\pm}0.97$) but the difference between importance and practice was greatest(0.94). Also 'consume home-made food rather than processed or ready to food' showed great scores in importance ($4.28{\pm}0.87$) and practice($3.87{\pm}1.04$). 'Consume fruits and vegetables rather than meats' and 'avoid heavy use of oils' had the importance score of $4.04{\sim}4.19$. But the practice score of 'avoid heavy use of oils' was the lowest($3.39{\pm}0.97$). Among four types of purchasing of food materials, 'purchase domestic agricultural food' was greatest($4.37{\pm}0.78$) and 'don't purchase genetically modified food' 'purchase organic food' and 'purchase whole grain products' were also great ($3.92{\sim}3.99$). But the practice score of 'purchase organic/low chemical foods($2.77{\pm}0.98$)' and 'don't purchase genetically modified food($2.99{\pm}1.41$)' were lowest. 'Go to well being restaurant' in three types of 'eating out' showed greatest in importance($3.35{\pm}0.96$) but the practice score($2.47{\pm}0.10$) was lower than the importance score. Also 'choose menu with comparing calories' had the lower score in practice($2.45{\pm}1.06$) rather than importance score($3.22{\pm}1.03$). In regarding to 'food habits', the importance score were significantly affected by type of food expense (p<0.05) and health status (p<0.05). The importance score of 'purchase food materials' were significantly affected by the type of food expense (p<0.001), type of residence(p<0.05), and self assessment of weight(p<0.05). Monthly income, especially more 400 million won, was the commonly significant effector in practice score of 'purchase food materials' and 'eating out'.
