A Study on Dietary Habits and Food Frequency of Young Children Who Like Sweets

Son, Hyang Nam; Park, Min Jung; Han, Ji Sook

Abstract

The objective of this research was to assess the dietary habits, food frequency, and nutrition knowledge of young children who like sweets in the Busan area; the study was conducted using survey method with questionnaires. One hundred eighty three children, aged 8 to 9 years, were divided into two groups: the sweet preference group (SPG) and the control group, based on the subjects' scores for sweets-related dietary habits, sweets preference, and sweets frequency. For dietary habits, the score for eating more snacks than meals was significantly higher in the SPG group than the control group. The SPG group members were also more likely to skip breakfast, have irregular meals, and consume instant and fast food more frequently (p<0.001) than the control group. Nutrition knowledge scores for proper snack intake and proper dietary attitude were significantly lower in the SPG than in the control group (p<0.05). With regard to food frequency, the SPG consumed more bread, cake, chicken, ham, sausage, hamburger, and ice cream, but less fish, tofu, beans, kimchi, bean sprouts, and milk than the control group. Strong positive correlations were noted between sweets preference, sweets frequency, and sweets-related dietary habits, whereas all of them were correlated negatively with nutritional knowledge. Sweets frequency was related negatively to meal regularity, having breakfast, eating the adequate amount of meals, and recommended food frequency.