P050 The Level of Food Literacy According to the Types of Food Intake Behaviors Among Young Adults in South Korea.

The Korean Health Eating Index (KHEI) of young adults was the lowest compared to other age groups. Food Literacy (FL) is the ability to keep a healthy eating habits for an individual and can be an important tool for preventing chronic diseases among young adults. The objectives of this study were to classify the types of dietary behaviors among young adults based on their food intake behaviors and to explore the level of FL according to those types. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey of representative sample of 1,059 young adults (19 to 39 years) in South Korea in 2021. FL questionnaire was comprised of 33 questions with 5-point scale. The total FL scores were calculated by adding all the responses and multiplied by 0.61 to make the highest score to be 100. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify the key characteristics of dietary behaviors, using 19 behavior questions such as frequencies of eating three meals and night snacking, frequency of using take-outs, cooking at home, and emotional eating. Statistical analysis was conducted using STATA/SE 17.0. Four types of dietary behaviors were extracted using PCA: healthy, trendy, convenient and emotional eating. Each participant had tendency scores for four eating types: the higher score meaning higher tendency of having that specific eating type. The FL scores increased from Q1(55.4) to Q5(67.8) according to the quintiles of their healthy diet tendency scores after adjusting for sex and age. The FL scores by the tendency of trendy diet, which is characterized by trying trendy diet such as intermittent fasting, increased from Q1(59.1) to Q5(66.9). In contrast, the higher tendency for emotional diet was associated with lower FL scores(Q1 = 62.5, Q5 = 59.8). Korean young adult population had different levels of FL according to their eating characteristics. It is important to develop targeted nutrition education programs for improving FL among young adults with unhealthy eating practices such as higher tendency of emotional eating. Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; Government of Seoul; National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education. (2021R1I1A306024811, 2021R1A6A1A03044501) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]