Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

The market size of the food service industry is expanding globally and the proportion of people eating out of home (OH) on a frequent basis is increasing. Previous studies have suggested that dietary changes due to the increased frequency of eating OH were one of the major contributing factors to an obesogenic environment. Therefore, this study aimed to provide baseline data and insight that can contribute to a policy for promoting healthy eating among Korean make workers by analyzing the nutritional quality of dinner meals eating out of home (OH) versus eating at home (AH). This study was performed on 1,634 Korean male workers aged 19 to 64 years among the total of 15,508 individuals who participated in the 24-hour recall dietary survey through the 6th (2013-2014) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects were classified and analyzed according to the type of dinner they have eaten: Out-of-Home Groups (OHG) (n=659) and At-Home Group (AHG) (n=975). Relatively young male white-collar workers with a higher level of education and income were more likely to eat OH for dinner. The OHG had a higher intake of energy, fat and sodium, but a lower intake of carbohydrate from dinner than the AHG. The contributions of dinner to daily energy and macronutrient intakes, except for carbohydrate, were higher in the OHG. In addition, the OHG was less likely to have dinner meals following a Korean traditional pattern. Overall, the results suggest that nutritional quality of dinner meals eating OH by Korean male workers had more potential problems. Therefore, it should not be overlooked that eating OH is an important arena where strategies for healthier eating can be deployed when establishing worksite health promotion or a national nutrition policy.

Biography

So-Young Kim has her expertise in food services. She has been in academia and industry for the last 20 years, pursuing the balance between theory and practice. Her areas of research interests include institutional and commercial food services, food marketing and food culture. Presently, she focuses on promoting healthy food environment and sustainable development in food services.