Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out how important providing nutrition education to young students is. The study is based on the assumption that students' food behavior, nutrition knowledge and cognition of body image, weight control and nutrition education are considerably influenced by gender. A total of 495 students (249 boy and 246 girl students) were surveyed in one middle school located Siheungsi, Gyeonggido. The average height and weight of the boy and girl students are 164.6 cm, 54.4 kg and l58.5cm, 47kg, respectively. According to average BMI, the boy students($20.0kg/m^2$) are in the normal state. However, the girl students($18.2kg/m^2$) are underweight. For the status of meal intake, 52.4% of the students took breakfast everyday. Female students had dinner with lower intake frequency than males(p<0.05). For snack intake, the kinds of snack differ according to gender(p<0.05); more milk for male and more fruit for female students. The scores of dietary behavior based on Mini Dietary Assessment were 21.5/30 for male and 21.3/30 for female students. The nutrition knowledge scores of 4.6/10 for male and 4.6/10 for female students were not significantly different according to gender. The score of dietary behavior is based on Mini Dietary Assessment. The survey shows that in terms of the experience of weight control, 35.5% of the girl students have made an effort to watch their weight and 21.8% of the boy students have tried controlling their weight(p<0.0001). It turns out that the students who have been provided nutrition education are more satisfied with their body shape than those who have never been provided nutrition education(p<0.05).

Keywords

• dietary behavior;
• nutrition knowledge;
• body image;
• weight control;
• nutrition education;
• gender