A Comparative Study on Dietary Life according to the Obesity Assessment Methods of Higher Grade Elementary School Students in Jeonju

전주지역 고학년 초등학생의 비만판정 방법에 따른 식생활 비교연구

This study was done for finding out if eating habits, eating behaviors were different between non-obese and obese elementary school students in Jeonju Area. Total 2568 students of 1364 male and 1204 female of the 4th, 5th, and 6th year in 5 elementary schools were surveyed and the statistics of the result was analyzed by SPSS program. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Obesity was defined as Body Mass Index(BMI) that exceeded 85th and Obesity Index(OI) that exceeded 110. First, subjects were divided into 4 groups : lean, normal, overweight and obese. Second subjects were reclassified into non-obese(lean and normal) and obese(overweight and obese) groups. Average height of male and female students were 142.5cm, 143.1cm and weight of those were 36.4kg and 37.9kg respectively. 2. As results of obesity computation, obese male students were 19.6%(overweight 11.3%, obese 8.3%) in BMI and obese male students were 25.0%(overweight 12.5.%, obese 12.5%) in OI. Especially Obesity percent rate of male student were significantly higher on that of female student in OI method. 3. Examining obesity between male and female, there were statistically different between male students and female students in OI, but there were not statistically different in BMI. With regard to grade level(4th, 5th, 6th), there were statistically different among grade levels. 4. Examining correlation between eating habits(eating behaviors) and obesity, there were statistically significant in some cases. For example, there were statistically significant correlation between fast eating habit and obesity. And the relation analysis of general environments and obesity showed that there were statistically significant in some cases. These results suggest that the number of overweight students can be increased due to the amount and kinds of food children have as well as the general causes of overweight such as genetic, environmental and psychological reason. Surveying about children's eating habits, eating behaviors this study methodically. Working with parents is necessary and comparison of eating habits, eating behaviors and nutrition knowledge between the past and their presents are also needed in a future.