A Study on the Dietary Nutrient Intakes and Blood Profiles of Smoking Teenage Girls Living in a Rural Community in Korea

일부 농촌 지역 흡연 여고생의 영양 섭취 및 혈액 성상 조사

Cigarette smoking has a negative effect for nutrient intakes and nutritional status of antioxidant nutrients including vitamin C. This study has been performed to compare the dietary nutrient intakes, serum vitamin C concentration and serum cotinine concentration of smoking teenage girls(n=104) with those of non-smoking teenage girls(n=791). The subjects were 895 high school girls(15-19 years of age) living in a rural community in Korea. Of the subjects, 11.6% stated that they were currently smoking. The frequency of taking alcohol, soda and coffee was higher in smokers than in non-smokers, respectively. The usage rate of vitamin/mineral supplements was higher in smokers than in non-smokers. The smokers tended to skip breakfast and lunch and to take snack more often than did the non-smokers. The dietary intakes of calorie, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, calcium and iron were lower in smokers than in non-smokers. Daily mean intakes of these nutrients were less than the 2/3 of the Korean RDAs in smokers while these intakes were similar to or more than the RDAs in non-smokers. The ratio of under weight or lean tended to be higher in smokers. Serum vitamin C concentration was lower in smokers than in non-smokers. These findings show that smokers have unsound eating habits and poor nutirtional status. In particular, nutritional status of vitamin C is significantly poor in smokers, and this tendency can be found more notably in heavy smokers. Therefore, oxidative stress may be present in young teenage girls with short smoking history as evidence by above results. (Korean J Nutrition 34(3) : 338∼347, 2001)