A Study of the Dietary Habits, the Nutritional Knowledge and the Consumption Patterns of Convenience Foods of University Students in the Gwangju Area

Kim, Kyung Hee

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary habits, the nutritional knowledge and the consumption patterns of convenience foods of 618 university students located in the Gwangju area, from November twentieth to November thirtieth, 2002. The subjects included 301 males (48.7%) and 317 females (51.3%). This survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. The percentage of students who were underweight, normal and overweight based on their body mass index (BMI) was 3.7, 88.0 and 8.3 for the males, and 29, 71 and 0 for the females, respectively. Most students (73.8%) skipped breakfast. This was because of lack of time (65.1%) of the cases. Self-reported eating habit problems were eating irregular meal (52.4%), overeating (21%), prejudiced meal (12.4%) and skipping meal (7.4%). The type of favorite snack was biscuit (31.9%) and cup Ramyon (31.9%). The rates of alcohol drinking in male and female students were 88.0% and 85.8% respectively, and the rates of smoking were 35.9% and 2.8% respectively. Males ate frequently cup Ramyon (2.08 +/- 2.95), fries (pork cutlet, fried potato)(1.91 +/- 2.58), Ramyon (1.81 +/- 3.00) and kimbab (1.70 +/- 3.17) more frequently, while females ate kimbab (2.25 +/- 3.26), cup Ramyon (1.89 +/- 2.09), fries (pork cutlet, fried potato)(1.77 +/- 2.67), Ramyon (1.46 +/- 1.1.95) and fish paste 1.45 +/- 2.22) more frequently. The nutritional knowledge score was higher in females than in males. The mean consumption patterns of convenience foods of students living in home were lower than that of students living in dormitory and boarding w/cooking. When the amount of pocket money available and the body mass index increased and the nutritional knowledge level was low, the mean consumption of convenience foods increased. The mean consumption of convenience foods correlated negatively with nutritional knowledge (p < 0.01). Therefore, nutritional education for university students is needed so as to improve their health and nutritional education program should be developed to meet the various needs of these students.