New Employees' Dietary Attitudes, Nutrition Knowledge, and Food Preferences in Gyeonggi Area

Abstract

This study evaluates nutrition knowledge, dietary behaviors and food group acceptability based on a sample of 514 of new employees in Gyeonggi area. Among the respondents, 70.6% of male, and their age was 30.7 Most were college graduates (94.9%) and unmarried (86.3%). Based on the BMI males tended to be overweight, whereas females, normal. In terms of health consciousness based on five-point Likert-type scale, the average score for the health status was 4.18 indicating good health, and health attention was 4.88 indicating high health attention. Dietary behaviors were evaluated using five-point Likert-type scale. According to the results, the total score for regular diet based on 5 items was 9.6; that for a balanced diet based on 7 items was 22.2; and that for practical diet action based on 8 items was 22.3. That is, the respondents were on an irregular diet but tried to balanced diet through appropriate diet action. Food acceptability was evaluated using a five-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly dislike(1)" to "strongly like(5)". The score of meat group was 3.67; that for the fish 3.43; and that for the vegetable group was 2.86. Females were slightly more like to accept fruits 3.60 than males 3.48;(p<0.05). The total score for nutrition knowledge based on 35 items was 20.5. A balanced diet was correlated with egg acceptability (p<0.01); energy-related knowledge with confectionery preferences (p<0.05); and vitamin knowledge, with snack affinity (p<0.05). Health attention was negatively correlated with seafood preferences for male(p<0.05) and with snacks for females(p<0.05). The respondents were strongly interested in and aware of their health, but this did not lead to their food preferences. These results suggests that dietary habits can lead to nutritional balance for maintaining the health of employees.