Open Access, Peer-reviewed
eISSN 2951-3146
    Korean J Community Nutr. 2013 Feb;18(1):25-44. Korean.
    Published online Feb 28, 2013.
    https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2013.18.1.25
    Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition
    Original Article

    The study of Perception in Body Somatotype and Dietary Behaviors - The Comparative Study between Korean and Chinese College Students -

    Youngmee Lee, and Lin Sun
      • Department of Food and Nutrition, Graduated School, Gachon University, Seongnam, Korea.
    • Corresponding author: Youngmee Lee, Department of Food and Nutrition, Gachon University, San 65 Bokjeong-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 461-701 Korea. Tel: (031) 750-5971, 5973, Fax: (031) 750-5974, Email: leeym@gachon.ac.kr
    Received November 02, 2012; Revised January 02, 2013; Accepted January 08, 2013.

    This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Abstract

    This study aimed to analyze about the perception in obesity and body somatotype of university students in Korea and in China. This study provides the basic data of nutrition education for university student healthy weight program in China. The subjects were selected 240 university students of Korea and China. Two types of qualitative and quantitative questionnaires were used to analyze the attitude and body somatotype of subjects. The results of this study were as follows: The average BMI of Korean and Chinese male students was 22.3 and 22.5, respectively while the average BMI of Korean and Chinese female students was 19.8 and 19.7, respectively. In the past three years, the weight gain of Chinese students was higher than that of Korean students. Chinese students preferred the overweight body somatotype more compared to the Korean students. The overweight and obese students had more obvious insufficiency in body somatotype perception. The overweight and obese students had higher tendency to 'eat more meat', 'drink carbonated beverages', 'eat convenience food', 'take fast food' and 'drink alcohol' than the normal and low weight group. The major reasons for Korean students to control weight were 'appearance' and 'self confidence', while the major reasons for Chinese students were 'health' and 'employment'. From the results of associative group analysis (AGA), Chinese students had different semantic value of 'obese' than Korean students. Considering of the food transition status in China, it may be necessary to develop more suitable education programs for weight control for Chinese university students.

    Keywords
    obesity; somatotype; Chinese; associative group analysis (AGA)

    Figures

    Fig. 1
    Semantograph of the theme "Obesity".

    Tables

    Table 1
    General characteristics of subjects

    Table 2
    Anthropometric index of subjects

    Table 3
    The 3-years weight changing amount of Korean and Chinese university students

    Table 4
    Obesity and over-weight rate of Korean and Chinese student by BMI

    Table 5
    The perception in body somatotype by sex

    Table 6
    The perception in body somatotype by BMI

    Table 7
    Frequencies of dietary behaviors between Korean and Chinese students

    Table 8
    Experience of negative feelings after eating

    Table 9
    Attitude toward weight control and needs of nutrition education

    Notes

    This work was supported by the Gachon University research fund of 2012 (GCU-2012-R297).

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    MeSH Terms
    Asians
    Carbon
    China
    Female
    Humans
    Korea
    Male
    Obesity
    Overweight
    Semantics
    Somatotypes
    Surveys and Questionnaires
    Weight Gain
    Metrics
    Share
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    Tables
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