A Comparison of Dietary Quality Among Korean Obese Children and Adolescents

OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents is growing in Korea at present. Childhood obesity reflects multiple interactions of genetic, environmental, social, and behavioral factors. Also, nutritional components, and food intake patterns may be related with the increasing obesity rate in children and adolescents. This study aimed to assess the nutrition intake and dietary quality of children and adolescents analyzed the difference in children and adolescents. METHODS: The participants included 58 obese children and adolescents ranging in age from 7∼15 years. In this study, participants were divided into two groups (children ≦ age 11 years, adolescents ≧ 12 years). The dietary intake data was investigated through dietary records and nutrition quotient (NQ) for Korean was analyzed through questionnaires. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 25.0. RESULTS: The intake of energy, protein, and water-soluble vitamin were significantly higher in the adolescents than in the children. Compared with dietary recommended intake for Korean, vitamin A, calcium, potassium, magnesium intakes were insufficient in both groups. Sodium intake in the both groups were double times more than recommended intake and the difference was not significant. In NQ, the NQ total score, balance, diversity, and regularity score of adolescents were significantly higher from those in children, whereas both groups got low scores of NQ. CONCLUSIONS: The adolescents showed a tendency to have better dietary intakes than the children. However, education for adequate diet intakes should be provided to prevent and treatment obese in children and adolescents. FUNDING SOURCES: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP).