Dietary Patterns and Acculturation of Korean American Adults and Adolescents Living in California

This study was conducted to define dietary patterns among 227 Korean American adults and 151 teenagers living in California using frequency of intake of major food groups and to examine associations of dietary patterns with selected demographic and acculturation variables. Three dietary patterns, 'healthful', 'Korean', and 'western', were identified using factor analysis. For both groups, 'healthful' pattern was characterized by high loading on milk/milk products, fruit, fruit juice, and bean/bean products. 'Korean' pattern had high loading on rice and kimchi. 'Western' pattern was characterized by high loading on meat/meat products, soda, and noodle/pasta. Among Korean American adults, women tended to have higher scores of 'healthful' pattern but lower scores of 'western' pattern, while there was no association of 'Korean' pattern with gender. The older adults were likely to have higher 'Korean' pattern score. Length of stay in the US and English levels were negatively associated with 'Korean' pattern. Korean American female adolescents had lower 'western' pattern scores than did male adolescents. Age was inversely associated with 'healthful' pattern in adolescents. The adolescents who had felt more proud of being a Korean descendant had higher scores on 'Korean' dietary pattern. The study findings support that dietary patterns are associated with acculturation variables such as length of residence in the US, English fluency, and particularly pride in ethnicity for adolescents. Further studies are needed to understand associations of dietary patterns and acculturation with health risk of ethnic groups.