Journal List > Korean J Community Nutr > v.22(1) > 1038584

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

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.

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Democratic characteristics of the children

kjcn-22-22-i001

1) N (%)

2) Lower grades (1 – 3): 6 – 9 years old, Upper grades (4 – 6): 10 – 12 years old

3) Without children: Food secure 0 – 2, Food insecure without hunger 3 – 5, Food insecure with hunger (moderate) 6 – 8, Food insecure with hunger (severe) 9 – 10. With children: Food secure 0 – 2, Food insecure without hunger 3 – 7, Food insecure with hunger (moderate) 8-12, Food insecure with hunger (severe) 13 – 18.

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

Table 2

Physical status of children

kjcn-22-22-i002

1) Values are Mean±SD.

2) Korean: Based on growth charts for Korean Children and adolescents (2007), Underweight: BMI percentile < 5, Normal weight: 5 ≤ BMI percentile < 85, Overweight: 85 ≤ BMI percentile < 95, Obesity: BMI percentile ≥ 95. Chinese: Underweight: Screening standard for malnutrition of school-age children and adolescents (WS/T 456-2014). Normal weight, Overweight, Obesity: Body mass index growth curves for Chinese children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years (H Li,CY Ji, XN Zong, YQ Zhang 2009).

3) N (%)

**: p < 0.01

Table 3

NQ score and NQ grades of children between Korean and Chinese

kjcn-22-22-i003

1) Factor score = sum of [checklist item score (0 – 100) × rounded item weight within a factor], NQ score = sum of [checklist item score (0 – 100) × item weight within NQ

2) Values are Mean±SD.

3) Highest (100~80.9), High (73.8~80.8), Medium (56.5~73.7), Low (47.6~56.4), Lowest (0~47.5)

4) N (%)

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

Table 4

NQ score and NQ grades of Chinese children by food security

kjcn-22-22-i004

1) Without children: Food secure 0 – 2, Food insecure without hunger 3 – 5, Food insecure with hunger (moderate) 6 – 8, Food insecure with hunger (severe) 9 – 10. With children: Food secure 0 – 2, Food insecure without hunger 3 – 7, Food insecure with hunger (moderate) 8 – 12, Food insecure with hunger (severe) 13 – 18.

2) Values are Mean±SD.

3) Best (100~80.9), Excellence (73.8~80.8), Ordinary (56.5~73.7), Imperfectly (47.6~56.4), Bad (0~47.5)

4) N (%)

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

Table 5

Comparison of checklist items for balance factor

kjcn-22-22-i005

1) N (%)

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

Table 6

Comparison of checklist items for diversity factor

kjcn-22-22-i006

1) N (%)

***: p < 0.001

Table 7

Comparison of checklist items for moderation factor

kjcn-22-22-i007

1) N (%)

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

Table 8

Comparison of checklist items for regularity factor

kjcn-22-22-i008

1) N (%), ***: p < 0.001

Table 9

Comparison of checklist items for practice factor

kjcn-22-22-i009

1) N (%), *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

Table 10

Relationship of children's NQ score with parent's practicing score of Dietary Guidelines

kjcn-22-22-i010

Partial correlation coefficients

Adjusted for nationality, gender, grade, father's educational level, mather's educational level, food secure

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

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Hokyung Ryu
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4212-7363

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