Korean J Community Nutr.  2017 Feb;22(1):22-39. 10.5720/kjcn.2017.22.1.22.

Comparison of Nutritional Status and Eating Behavior of Korean and Chinese Children using the Nutrition Quotient (NQ)

• Ling H
• Ryu H

• KMID: 2371815
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2017.22.1.22

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to investigate the nutritional status and dietary behavior of Korean and Chinese elementary school children using Nutritional Quotient (NQ).
METHODS
The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to the parents of the child, after selecting four elementary schools located in Pusan city of Korea and three elementary schools located in Luoyang city, Henan Province of China, from Grade 1 to Grade 6 in each school.
RESULTS
The NQ scores of Korean children and Chinese children were 64.99 and 66.57, respectively, which did not show a statistically significant difference. Korean children significantly showed higher diversity score (p<0.001) than Chinese, but Chinese children significantly showed higher moderation (p < 0.001), regularity (p < 0.001) and practice score (p < 0.01) than Korean. NQ grades showed a statistically significant difference. According to food security of the household, NQ scores of the Chinese children of secure household were significantly higher than those of food insecurity household (p < 0.01). In particular, it showed a significant difference in the practice (p < 0.001), moderation (p < 0.05) and regularity score (p < 0.05). Korean children's NQ score showed a significant correlation with the score of following the Dietary Guidelines of parents, but Chinese did not show such a correlation.
CONCLUSIONS
There were differences in children's dietary behaviors and parents' impact to children's dietary attitude between Korean and Chinese. NQ developed for Korean could be successfully applied to Chinese.

Keyword

Nutrition Quotient (NQ); elementary school children; eating behavior; Korean; Chinese

MeSH Terms

Asian Continental Ancestry Group*
Busan
Child*
China
Eating*
Family Characteristics
Feeding Behavior*
Food Supply
Humans
Korea
Nutrition Policy
Nutritional Status*
Parents

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