A Study of Nutritional Knowledge, Dietary Attitudes and Dietary Behaviors of Adult Women by Acne Status

This study was conducted to investigate nutritional knowledge, dietary attitudes, and dietary behaviors of adult women, and to examine if these characteristics were different by acne status. Subjects were 106 adult women residing in Seoul recruited from clients and employers at skin care centers, and housewives from apartment complexes. Surrey instrument was adapted or modified based on literature review and dietary intakes were assessed using 24-hour recalls for two days and CAN-pro. All data was statistically analyzed using x$^2$test and ANOVA. When examined by acne status, 41.5% of subjects were categorized into acne group, 20.8% were as ex-acne group, and 37.7% as no-acne group. Parental experience of acne was significantly related to acne status(p〈 0.01). Education, employmental status, and smoking or drinking status were not related to acne status. Subjects had a moderate level of nutritional knowledge(72.7 point) and the nutritional knowledge store was not significantly different by acne status. When examined by individual items, the groups showed significant difference on the items regarding vitamin C and necessity of carbohydrates(p 〈 0.05). Subjects showed favorable dietary attitudes. Although the acne group showed more favorable attitudes on the importance of nutrition on acne, the overall dietary attitudes of the acne group were not significantly different from the ex-acne group or no-acne group. Similarly only small differences were noticed in dietary behaviors or nutrient intakes by acne status. Cholesterol consumption was hitgher in the no-acne group than in the acne group or ex-acne group(p 〈 0.01). The intakes of energy, iron, and calcium was much below the RDA in three groups. Although there were not many significant differences in nutritional knowledge, dietary attitudes, and dietary behaviors by acne status, this study provided some baseline information regarding study variables by acne status.