Relationships of Dietary Behavioral Factors and Stress Perception Levels in College Students in Gwang-ju City

광주지역 일부 대학생에서 식생활 요인과 스트레스 인지수준과의 상관관계

The purpose of this study was to estimate the relationships between dietary factors and the stress perception levels of College students. A survey was conducted in June, 2010, targeting 332 college students in Gwangju. General environmental factors, stress perception levels, dietary behaviors, and dietary action guide performance of the subjects were evaluated by questionnaire, and food intakes was determined by the 24-hour recall method. The results are summarized as follows.: The score of frequency experiencing was $45.1{\pm}16.9$ for male students, and $47.0{\pm}16.7$ for female students. The importance scores were $50.8{\pm}18.5$ for males, and $53.3{\pm}18.7$ for females. The total score for dietary action guide performance was $39.6{\pm}7.2$ for males and $40.6{\pm}6.5$ for females. Nutrient intake levels were evaluated based on dietary reference intake (DRI), revealing energy intakes to be 68.5% EER in males and 73.9% in females. The mean intakes of nutrient were 54.2% RI for calcium, 73.6% RI for riboflavin, and 51.2% RI for vitamin C but 203.6% AI for sodium, which indicates an imbalance in nutrient intake. Analysis of the correlations between stress perception levels and dietary factors, scholarship achievements, financial problems, future problems, value senses, and family relationships revealed significant correlations with general environment factors, dietary behaviors, Dietary action guide performance, and nutrient intakes (p<0.05). The higher the stress perception levels of the students, the higher the energy, coffee and alcohol intake, which predicts that appropriate stress control in college students will lead to better dietary habits. It is expected that the results above will be used as basic data for the development of proper nutrition education programs and stress control strategies.