[A survey on the dietary and health habits according to action styles for unbalanced diets among female university students].

OBJECTS

A survey of woman's students, who had grown up in a time of change-over of Japanese customs regarding food, was conducted to investigate dietary habits, a focus on actions in response to with set needs, The aim was to obtain to measure prospective health maintenance and promotion.

METHODS

The authors carried out a questionnaire for woman's students in 6 universities of Kanto area (a junior college and graduate courses were included) in years 1999 and 2000.

RESULTS

In actions regarding the diet, 19.1% of the 815 students responded "I eat everything without fail", 17.7% "I eat almost everything irrespective of likes and dislikes", 24.5% "I strive to eat everything", 19.8% "I leave almost everything I dislike", and 18.5% "I don't eat what I dislike". The students who responded "I leave almost everything I dislike" and "I don't eat what I dislike" had low scores in the questionnaire for dietary and health habits, and they tended to like noodles and popular snacks, and also made frequent use of fast food restaurants. There was not a problem with the majority, but about 30% of the students were judged as confirming an unbalanced diet by this questionnaire. It was found that there were "gaps" and "bad habits" in the regular diet. Moreover, we recognized a tendency to prefer convenience and taste to nutritional balance.

CONCLUSION

This simple questionnaire is suitable for rapid identification of unbalanced distory habits, and both "gaps" and "bad habits" in the regular system diet. It is the most important that we induce students who leave or don't eat what they dislike, to strive to eat everything, irrespective of likes and dislikes.