• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.477-484
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to investigate the awareness of the meaning of a low-sodium diet as well as the self-reported preference of saltiness and sodium-intake related dietary behaviors for university students in Busan. A survey was conducted with 977 students (male: 512, female: 465). For the self-reported preference of saltiness, 45.8% of the participants reported 'moderate' preference, 35.3% reported 'salty' preference, and 18.8% reported 'unsalty' preference. Males had significantly higher scores than females (p<0.01). Regarding awareness of the meaning of a low-sodium diet, 20.8 % of the students did not recognize the phraseand, males had significantly lower awareness than females (p<0.01). The 'salty' group had a significantly lower rate than others (p<0.01). Males had significant higher sodium-related dietary behaviors scores than females for the following questions 'I often eat dried seafood and salted seafood', 'I usually eat all the broth in soups or stews' (p<0.01), 'I usually eat a lot of kimchi and salt-pickled vegetables', 'I usually eat soy dip or hot pepper dip with sushi and fritters' (p<0.05). Mean scores for sodium-related dietary behaviors by self-reported preference of saltiness were 2.49/5.00 (unsalty), 2.87/5.00 (moderate), and 3.19/5.00 (salty), respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups (p<0.01). The lower the scores for the self-reported preference of saltiness, the lower the scores for sodium intake-related dietary behaviors (p<0.01). The average score for sodium-related dietary behaviors in the group familiar with the meaning of a low-sodium diet was significantly lower than that of the group that 'did not know' (p<0.01).