Dietary sugar intake and dietary behaviors in Korea: a pooled study of 2,599 children and adolescents aged 9-14 years

Abstract

Background/objectives: Dietary sugar intake, particularly added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages, has received worldwide attention recently. Investigation of dietary behaviors may facilitate understanding of dietary sugar intakes of children and adolescents. However, the relationship between dietary sugar intake and dietary behaviors in the Korean population has not been investigated. Thus, this study aimed to estimate dietary sugar intake and food sources according to sex as well as examine the relationship of dietary sugar intake with frequent snacking and dietary patterns among Korean children and adolescents.

Subjects/methods: We pooled data from five studies involving Korean children and adolescents conducted from 2002 to 2011. A total of 2,599 subjects aged 9-14 years were included in this study. Each subject completed more than 3 days of dietary records.

Results: Mean daily total sugar intake was 46.6 g for boys and 54.3 g for girls. Compared with boys, girls showed higher sugar intakes from fruits (7.5 g for boys and 8.8 g for girls; P = 0.0081) and processed foods (27.9 g for boys and 34.9 g for girls; P < 0.0001). On average, 95.4% of boys and 98.8% of girls consumed snacks during the study period, and total sugar intake showed a significantly increasing trend with increasing energy intake from snacks (P < 0.0001 for both sexes). Two dietary patterns were identified by cluster analysis: Traditional and Westernized patterns. Total sugar intake was higher in the Westernized pattern (56.2 g for boys and 57.2 g for girls) than in the Traditional pattern (46.5 g for boys and 46.3 g for girls).

Conclusions: These results suggest that multilateral and practical development of a nutrition education and intervention program that considers dietary behaviors as well as absolute sugar intake is required to prevent excessive sugar intake in Korean children and adolescents.

Keywords: Dietary sugar; Korean; dietary behavior; dietary pattern; snack.

Fig. 1. Mean daily sugar intake from processed foods of Korean children and adolescents aged 9-14 years according to sex.

(a) sugar intake from processed foods (g/day) (b) sugar intake from processed foods (% of energy/day) All values were tested using a generalized linear model (GLM) after adjusting for age, study number, maternal education, physical activity, and energy intake, with the exception of energy intake models. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.0001.