• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.85-100
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• 2020

Eating alone has recently become a very common dietary pattern in modern society. This study investigated the relationship between the frequency of eating alone and health related issues including chronic diseases, depression, and the quality of life (QOL). The 2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey provided the basic data for this study. According to the general analysis of 4,910 adults aged over 19 years or older, the average age in the 'eating alone' group was significantly higher (P<0.001), and the ratio of single-person households was significantly higher as the number of times of eating alone increased (P<0.001). Analysis of the relationship between the risk factors of metabolic syndrome according to the number of times eating alone, using logistic regression analysis, showed that the odds ratio of metabolic syndrome in the 'two times eating alone a day' group was approximately 1.3 times higher (OR=1.275) after being corrected for gender, age and energy intake. For the 'three times eating alone a day' group, the metabolic syndrome odds ratio was higher in all models except for model 1 and 5 (P for trend<0.05). The prevalence of depression using patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was higher as the number of eating alone increased, and the QOL was inversly related with the number of meals eating alone (P for trend<0.01). We hope the results of this study will raise awareness of the health of those people who eat alone and lay the groundwork for individuals who eat alone and gain social attention.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.576-583
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to estimate the influence of the determinants for home meal replacement (HMR) purchase frequency before and after COVID-19. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to the 2018~2020 Consumer Behavior Survey for Food data from the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI). Gender, age, number of households, monthly income, use of eating out, delivery and takeout order service, HMR food safety concern, the frequency of cooking at home, grocery shopping, and eating alone were applied as the explanatory variables to explain HMR purchase frequency. The results are as below. Compared to the previous year, the growth rate of HMR purchase frequency in 2020 was relatively high, indicating that the COVID-19 outbreak acted as a catalyst. Unlike in 2018 and 2019, there was no statistical difference in the HMR purchase frequency between single- and multi-person households in 2020, with indicating multi-person households began to emerge as one of the major HMR consumption groups. Unlike 2018, the 2020 HMR purchase frequency showed a statistically positive relationship with those of grocery shopping and eating alone. There was a positive relationship between the frequency of eating out/food delivery orders and HMR purchases. The more often cooking at home occurred, the less HMR food was purchased.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2006

Food frequency, food attitude, eating habits and physical activities of Korean-American children and Korean children were compared. Two hundred and sixty two Korean-American children living in New Jersey and New York in the United States of America(KcUS group) and three hundred and thirty one Korean children living in Seoul, Korea (KcK group) between the ages of 9 and 12 were included. There were significant differences in food frequency between these groups. The KcUS group ate more western food, more food at meal time and more snack than the KcK group. In addition, KcUS group slept longer hours and exercised less than KcK group. In this study, we learned that higher rate of obesity in Korean-American children could be partially explained by the difference in food intake, food attitude, eating habit, and physical activities between the two groups. It is suggested that a different approach will be useful in developing nutrition education programs against childhood obesity for the Korean-American children and Korean children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1285-1296
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• 1998

This study was performed to investigate the food behaviors of college students through a food record method. In this study, one hundred and sixty seven students of Dankook university were chosen(male:77, female:90). We collected data about nutrients intake and food behaviors. Food behaviors included a frequency of both meal and snack, meal time, eating place, person with whom they ate, reason for eating, feeling after eating, and activities during mealtime. The results of the study were summarized as follows. Energy intake per day of male and female were 2201kcal and 1781kcal, respectively. Expect for the protein, vitamin C and phosphate, nutrients were not satisfied with the RDA, especially the intake of vitamin A, Vitamin B2, and calcium was very low. Average eating frequency per day was 5.1 and meal eating frequency per day was 2.6. In addition, male ate more frequently than female did. The interval between breakfast and lunch was 295 minutes, and between lunch and dinner was 373 minutes. The places where they ate the meal and snack were mostly school and restaurant at lunch and dinner, and there was not a significant different between weekday and weekend. On weekdays, the 40~50% of subjects had a breakfast with family, and most students had a lunch or dinner with friends. During weekend, although the percentage of students who had a lunch and dinner with family were increased, a lot of students had a lunch and dinner with friends or alone. In case of reason for meal and snack, the 60~70% of subjects answered that they ate the meal for hunger, and there was not different between weekday and weekend. 60~70% of subjects felt that they eat proper, but the percentage of overeat was increased for dinner. Most students were talking with others while they had a lunch. About 20% of subjects ate only food at both breakfast and dinner and 30% of subjects were watching TV. In correlation between nutrients intake and food behaviors, the higher frequency of eating, the higher carbohydrate intake in male. In case of female, protein intake and dinner time showed the negative correlation, and protein intake and mean intervals of eating had a positive correlation. In case of male, reason for eating affected the nutrient intake, but eating place, after feeling and activity for eating had no relation with nutrients intake. But in case of female, these factors affected nutrient intake. Therefore, food behaviors had an effect on nutrients intake, and the type of effect was different between male and female.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.626-633
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• 2007

This study was conducted to determine the eating habits of obese elementary school students residing in Iksan city, in June 2006 using 1167 participants(obese: 233, normal weight: 934). The results are summarized as follows. The average age was 12 years-old in both the obese and normal weight groups. The average BMI, ideal body weight and obesity index in the obese and normal weight groups were $24.8kg/m^2$, 39.8 kg, and 32.5% and $18.2kg/m^2$, 37.7 kg and -1.4%, respectively. Regarding the number of subject who acknowledged their physical build, the obese group was highest(88.9%) in stating obese or extremely obese, while the normal group was highest(71.5%) in stating they were normal weight. For the frequency of eating breakfast, the obese group the results were: "eating it everyday"(69.1%) and $"3{\sim}4\;times/week"$ (13.7%), while in the normal weight group, the highest response was "eating it everyday"(75%) and the lowest response was "never eat it"(4.1%). In terms of having breakfast with someone, there were slight differences for eating alone between the obese group(17.4%) and normal group(12.4%) and also between the obese group(19.6%) and normal group (39.6%) for eating with parents. There were considerable gaps in the association of eating habits with weight such as having irregular meals in the obese group(52.4%) and having regular meals in the normal group(61.1%). The frequency of having snacks was different by the rate of obesity, where 65.9% of the obese group, and 57.8% of the normal group had snacks more than once. There were significant differences in the practice of controlling intake with the obese group at 77.3% and the normal group at 36.3%. There were high numbers regarding eating more than average in stressful times for both the obese group(10.3%) and normal group(7.7%). The results of this study show the prevalence of obesity in Iksan, and proper nutrition education is currently needed. Moreover, the greater the level of obesity, the higher the frequency of skipping breakfast, eating alone, and eating irregular meals, and the more experience in attempting to control weight. To resolve the problems triggered by inappropriate food habits, proper food and eating methods to control weight should be included in nutrition education programs for elementary students.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.298-305
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the eating habits and social behavior of preschool children. Six hundred twenty seven children ranging in age from 4 to 7 and their mothers were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the children's eating habits and kindergarten teachers were asked to rate the social behavior of their preschool children. The eating habits of children positively correlated to those of their mothers, primarily in meal regularity, breakfast frequency, unbalanced meals, overeating, eating delivery food and food preferences. The results showed that 33% of preschool children always had unbalanced meals and 50% sometimes had them. Children who had ice cream, cake, carbonated drinks or cookies as snacks more often, tend to have meals irregularly because they favored sweets and were possibly induced to have unbalanced meals. Sixty five percent of the children were graded as good in terms of having healthy eating habits and had good social behavior. The results indicate that the eating habits of children are related to problem behavior, especially social withdrawal and anxiety. That is, children who have undesirable eating habits are likely to be anxious or socially withdrawn.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2018

This study examined the relationship between the eating out behavior of families and a low-salt management by housewives in Jeonju area. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 420 housewives. Descriptive statistical analyses was completed using SPSS v. 19.0 and Stata 13.0. The frequency of eating out and delivered food of housewives in their 20s was significantly higher than that of the older housewives (p<0.001). The high order frequency delivered foods were chicken menu and Chinese food. The determinants of the eating out menu were children's preference and meal time. The average scores of 'interest on low-salt diet', 'attitude toward a low-salt purchasing', and 'praxis a low-salt diet' were $2.70{\pm}0.95$, $3.06{\pm}1.13$, and $3.26{\pm}0.91$, respectively. The level of a low-salt management housewives in their 20s was higher than that of the older housewives (p<0.001). Regression analysis showed that various factors (e.g. age, number of children, education level, and frequency of the eating out) correlated with the low-salt diet of subjects. For the adequate eating out behavior of families and low-salt management of housewives, information and consumer education to take family-related situations into consideration are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 1993

The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of Entrance Examinees' Eating Behavior on their health condition. The examinees for Chungbuk National university in 1992 were asked to fill out the questionnaire(The total number was 1054 ; 537 males, 517 females). The statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, Crosstabs, Chi-square, t-test, one-way Anova, and Multiple Regression using SPSS/PC+ Program. The results are as follows. 1. Health condition due to an eating attitude: 1) As to health condition due to the food intake freguency, those who intaked fish or meat 3-5 days a week had the best heal th condition, but those who hardly intaked fish and meat or intaked them almost everyday had rather poor health condition. Those who intaked fried foods 1-2 days a week had the best health condition. The higher the freguency intaking such food or instant food was, the worse health condition was. 2) In view of health condition according to an eating attitude, it led to very good health condition to have breakfast & supper, to eat regularly, to select the nutritious foods, and to have a balanced diet. Overeating before sleeping and no meal or overeating before exam made their health very bad. Alcohol drinking & cigarrette smoking as favorite foods appeared significantly high in the boys. The more frequently they drinked alcohol and smoked cigarrette the worse their health condition was. Those who enjoyed milk, soya milk, and korean tea as favorite beverages had the better health condition than those who enjoyed coffee and soft drinks. 2. Influence of Eating Behavior on Health Condition. 1) The food intake freguency and the eating attitude influenced each other. The higher the score of food intake frequency was, the better the eating attitude appeared. 2) As a result of this study for eating behavior influencing on their health condition, the eating attitude influenced health condition, and the higher the eating attitude score was, the better heal th condition could be.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.139-149
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of obesity on the satisfaction with school lunches and school lunch leftovers of elementary school children in the Kyeonggi area. The study was carried out on 235 children(male : 111, female :124) in December of 2000. The results are summarized as follows. A Rohrer index was used to define obesity. The proportions of severe underweight, underweight, normal, overweight, and obese were 0.9%, 16.6%, 57.9%,17.0%, and 7.7% respectively. For the data analysis, the subjects were divided into 3 groups : an underweight group(Rohrer index 109 including severe underweight), a normal group(Rohrer index 110-140), and an obese group(Rohrer index 141 including overweight). With regard to the satisfaction with school lunches, the proportions of children who were satisfied, neutral, and unsatisfied were 27.2%, 59.6% and 13.2% respectively. The proportion of the satisfaction with school lunches was significantly higher in the male group than in the female group(p〈0.05), and the proportion of the dissatisfaction with school lunches was significantly increased with obesity index(p〈0.05). The largest proportion of children who were satisfied with school lunches answered they felt hungry(56.3%) and the food tasted good(42.2%). Children sho were not satisfied with school lunches answered that the food was not tasty(93.5%), they did not have ant appetite(9.7%), and others. The children not finishing school lunches(leftovers) occasionally or always were 47.7% of the subjects. The behavior of leaving lunch foods was not significantly related to the gender or the frequency of eating snacks, wile it was positively related with dissatisfaction with school lunches(p〈0.01), obesity index(p〈0.05), and the decreased frequency of eating meals per day(p〈0.01). The reasons of school lunch leftovers were food dislikes(67.9%), excess of quantity(39.3%), tastelessness(31.3%), poor appetite(13.4%), and other. The children eating meals twice, 3 times, and 4 times per day were 18.7%, 74.9%, and 6.4% of the subjects respectively. The proportions of the obese and the satisfaction with school lunches were not changed significantly according to the frequency of eating meals, while the proportion of children leaving school lunches was significantly higher in the group of eating meals twice per day than in the other groups(p〈0.01). The frequency of eating snacks was not related to the obesity index, the proportion of school lunch leftovers, or the frequency of eating meals, while the proportion of satisfaction with school lunches was significantly higher in the group of eating snacks 1-2 times per day than in the other groups(p〈0.01). In conclusion, it is necessary to have children enjoy school lunches with efforts to improve the food´s taste in the school food services and to reexamine the serving sizes for the children, in addition to the nutrition education for the children to eat a variety of foods.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.475-484
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• 2017

Objectives: The study was conducted to investigate the relationship between several stress measures in everyday life, emotional eating behavior, and dietary pattern (snacks, fatty foods, sweet beverages, fruits and vegetables) in school-aged children. Methods: One hundred and ninety-four students of an elementary school located in Seongnam City participated in the study. The students responded to the survey questionnaire by self-report, which consisted of items regarding general characteristics, height, weight, dietary habits, frequency of consuming healthy (fruits and vegetables) and unhealthy foods (snacks, fatty foods, and sweet beverages), emotional eating behavior, and daily stress. Correlational analysis was performed to examine the relationship between stress, emotional eating behavior, and dietary pattern, and Poisson and logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of stress on dietary pattern. Results: Positive correlations were found between all stress factors and emotional eating behavior and between the friend and personal factor (one of the stress factors) and the consumption of sweet beverages. The frequency of consuming sweet beverages was 2.6 times higher in the high stress group than in the low stress group (95% CI). Conclusions: Children's daily stress was associated with emotional eating behavior and undesirable dietary pattern such as consumption of sweet beverages.