Korean J Community Nutr KJCN Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 1226-0983 2287-1624 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition 10.5720/kjcn.2015.20.3.178 Research Article A Comparison of Dietary Habits, Weight Control Behaviors, Eating Disorder Risk, and Depression of Middle School Girls according to Various Stages of Dieting Jung Aekyung 1 Ryu Hyunsuk 2 Song Kyunghee 3 Lee Hongmie 4 Graduate School of Nutrition Education, Daejin University, Pocheon, Korea. Department of Nursing, Daejin University, Pocheon, Korea. Department of Food and Nutrition, Myongji University, Yongin, Korea. Department of Food Science & Nutrition, Daejin University, Pochoeon, Korea. Corresponding author: Hongmie Lee. Department of Food Science & Nutrition, Daejin University, 11-1 Sundan-dong, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi 487-711, Korea. Tel: (031) 539-1862, Fax: (031) 539-1860, hmlee@daejin.ac.kr 06 2015 30 06 2015 20 3 178 187 04 05 2015 11 06 2015 26 06 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition 2015 This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives

This study was conducted to compare dietary habits, weight control behaviors, eating disorder risk and depression among middle school girls who were at various stages of dieting.

 Methods

Subjects were 391 girls attending a middle school in Kyeonggido, Korea. All the information was gathered by self-administered questionnaires. Eating disorder risk and depression were assessed using EAT-26 and PHQ-9, respectively. Data were compared among 4 groups; no interest in a diet (N=112), had experienced dieting (N=86), on diet currently (N=71), and plan to diet (N=122).

 Results

A higher number of students currently on diet tended to be unsatisfied with their own weight (p < 0.01), overestimated their weight (p < 0.05), and weighed own body frequently (p < 0.001), compared to those with only experienced dieting in the past or those who plan to diet, despite similar weights and body mass index. The students who experienced dieting in the past or those who plan to diet appeared to have several undesirable as well as desirable dietary habits and their risk of eating disorder was significantly more prevalent compared to those without an interest in dieting (p < 0.01), although significantly less prevalent compared to those currently on a diet.

 Conclusions

We conclude that unnecessary dieting is common among middle school girls and providing proper education with regard to healthy weights is needed to enhance their physical as well as psychological wellbeing.

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1) Mean ±SD

abc: different superscripts were significantly different at p < 0.05 by Duncan's multiple range test.

**: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

 Lifestyle of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01

 Desirable dietary habits of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

1) Mean ± SD

ab: different superscripts were significantly different at p < 0.05 by Duncan's multiple range test.

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

 Undesirable dietary habits of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting<sup>1)</sup>

1) reversely coded: yes=1, sometimes=3, no=5

2) Mean ± SD

ab: different superscripts were significantly different at p < 0.05 by Duncan's multiple range test.

*: p < 0.05

 Disordered eating of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

1) Three subclasses of EAT-26

2) Mean ± SD

abc: different superscripts were significantly different at p < 0.05 by Duncan's multiple range test.

**: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

 Distribution of middle school girls with disordered eating according to various stages of dieting

1) N (%)

*: p < 0.05

 The features of depression of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

1) Mean ± SD

abc: different superscripts were significantly different at p < 0.05. by Duncan's multiple range test.

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01

 Distribution of middle school girls with depression according to various stages of dieting

***: p < 0.001

 Weight distortion of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

1) Underestimation group, 2) Normal perception group, 3) Overestimation group

 Weight-related perception and dieting behavior of middle school girls according to various stages of dieting

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001