Effect of Behavioral Pattern on Frequency of Food Intake among School Children

Abstract

A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1, 696 elementary school children in Hamamatsu City to investigate the relation between frequency of food intake and daily behavioral pattern, and the following result was obtained.
1) Among 12 factors of behavioral pattern, significant difference was observed in 10 items when broken down by the grades and in 6 items when broken down by the sex.
2) There was more number of factors of behavioral pattern that affected frequency of food intake among children in higher grades, particularly among girls.
3) Factors which had greater effect on the score of nutritive balance included “school notices regarding school lunch”, “conversation at home regarding school lunch menu”, “joy of eating at home”, and “discipline on eating manner during meals” for 3rd and 4th graders; and “frequency of breakfast intake”, “joy of eating at home”, “number of hours of TV watching”, and “bedtime hour” for 5th and 6th graders.
4) The score on nutritive balance showed a tendency to rise among children who often read the school notices regarding school lunch, have frequent conversation with family members about school lunch, find joy in meals at home, are less subject to discipline on eating manner, eat breakfast every morning, watched TV less than 30 minutes and who go to bed before 20:30.
5) Children who showed higher scores in nutritive balance tended to spend more time in reading, studying, and helping with house chores, whereas children with lower scores in nutritive balance spent longer time in reading cartoon books, playing with TV games and watching TV.
6) Children who enjoy watching TV commercials frequently eat junk food while a predominant ratio of children who do not watch TV seldom do so.