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So and Han: Diet-related Behaviors, Perception and Food Preferences of Multicultural Families with Vietnamese Wives
Original Article
Korean Journal of Community Nutrition

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2012; 17(5): 589-602.

Published online: 31 October 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2012.17.5.589

Diet-related Behaviors, Perception and Food Preferences of Multicultural Families with Vietnamese Wives

Jisun So, Sung Nim Han

Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

Multicultural Human Ecology Center, Research Institute of Human Ecology, College of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Sung Nim Han, Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. Tel: (02) 880-6836, Fax: (02) 884-0305, snhan@snu.ac.kr

Received 17 July 2012       Revised 24 September 2012       Accepted 5 October 2012

Copyright © 2012 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

Abstract

The Korean society has gone through a dramatic change in its population, with rapidly increasing number of multicultural families through international marriages since 1990s. This study investigated the differences between multicultural families and Korean families in three areas related to dietary behaviors: diet-related behaviors and perception, and food preferences. A cross-sectional analysis was performed in 500 Koreans from Korean families and 104 couples from the multicultural families with Vietnamese wives. More subjects from multicultural families grew up in the countryside, received less education and also had lower income than the subjects from Korean families. Multicultural families ate traditional Korean meals more often at home and dined out less often than Korean families. The multicultural families focused more attention on nutritional aspects of their diets than Korean families. The Vietnamese wives in multicultural families favored Vietnamese foods but they rarely ate those foods in Korea despite an easy accessibility to Vietnamese ingredients. In conclusion, the multicultural families had more traditional Korean dietary patterns than Korean families, which could have been influenced by their socioeconomic factors. Further research with a quantitative analysis is needed in future studies to understand the effect of dietary patterns on nutritional status and quality of life in multicultural and Korean families.

Keywords: multicultural families, Vietnamese female marriage immigrants, diet-related behaviors, diet-related perception

Figures and Tables

Table 1
Questionnaire
kjcn-17-589-i001
Table 2
General characteristics of Koreans and multicultural families1)
kjcn-17-589-i002

1) Values are % (number) except height, weight, and BMI which are Mean ± SD

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

Table 3
Diet & health-related behaviors (males)1)
kjcn-17-589-i003

1) Values are % (number)

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

Table 4
Diet & health-related behaviors (females)1)
kjcn-17-589-i004

1) Values are % (number)

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

Table 5
Diet-related perceptions (males)1)
kjcn-17-589-i005

1) Values are % (number)

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

Table 6
Diet-related perceptions (females)1)
kjcn-17-589-i006

1) Values are % (number)

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

Table 7
Food preferences (5 multiple responses)1)
kjcn-17-589-i007

1) Values are % (number)

Table 8
Frequency of Vietnamese food consumption1)
kjcn-17-589-i008

1) % (number)

Notes

This work was supported by the Multicultural Human Ecology Center at the Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University.

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