The purpose of this study is to investigate a correlation between food behaviors and ADHD, and a correlation between dietary attitude and ADHD for elementary students in grades 4-6. The questionnaire survey was conducted in a selected elementary school in Su-won and grades 4-6 students were selected as a target for this survey. The general questions were included the grades, gender, heights, weights, the number of family member, the educational level of their parents and the job of their parents. To investigate y food behaviors, Child Nutrition Index(NQ, Nutrition Quotient) developed by Kang et al.(2012) was used. The dietary attitude articles were included 5 parts; whether or not the students drop food during their meal time, whether or not the students clean the table they eat food on etc.
As a result of the study, 232 effective samples were collected and the gender distribution of samples between male and female are similar; 113 male students and 119 female students. The rate of eating kimchi at every meal for male students (63.7%) is higher than that of female student (55.5%) and it shows a significance statistically (p<.01). On the other hand, there is no significant difference between male and female students for the case of eating vegetable side dishes, fruits, milk and tofu and soy milk. Among 5 factors the Nutrition Quotient score for food behaviors, the balance factor shows the lowest score, and various factor shows the highest score and there is no difference between genders. The score of the final Nutrition Quotient (NQ) that weighted on these 5 factors is 62.59 and it is class 3, normal level (56.5～73.7). For the dietary attitudes, the 62.5% of students have a conversation with someone and the 36.6% of students eat quietly while eating. It shows a lot of students tend to talk with somebody while eating. For gender difference, only 29.2% of male students eat quietly and their dietary attitudes while eating is not good comparing to female (43.7%) and there is a statistically difference (P<.05). For the dietary attitude level differences according to general characteristics of elementary students, female students show better dietary attitudes comparing to those of male students, but there is no significant difference. According to the grade of the students, the body mass index, the family size and the job of a mother, there is no significant difference concerning the dietary attitudes. According to the educational level of parents and the job of a father, there is a significant difference for the dietary attitudes. According to the educational level of the parents, the dietary attitudes of the students with well-educated parents (graduated school/ college educational level) are better than those of the students with poor-educated parents(less than high school educational level). It shows that the educational level of parents influences on the good dietary attitudes of the students. As a result of investigation, the level of ADHD according to the general characteristics of elementary school students, an average 17.02 points out of a total of 81 points is showed, and the students with more than 41 points which are classified as ADHD-risk are 6 (2.2%) out of 232 students. By the gender, the male students(19.76) show the higher ADHD levels comparing to those of the female students (14.4.1) and this difference is significant statistically.
Also, there is a significant difference in level of ADHD depending on the educational level of parents and the job of a father. According to the educational level of a father, the students with poor-educated fathers(less than high school educational level) show the highest ADHD levels (19.85), and following on that of the students with fathers who have college educational level (15.25) and that of the students with fathers who have the graduated school educational level. The result of this ordering is the same as the result from the educational level of mothers.
Also, it is shown that there is a significant negative correlation between the food behaviors of elementary school students and ADHD (r=-.445, p<.001), and according to Nutrition Quotient, there is a significant negative correlation with balance, variety, moderation and practice. the dietary attitudes also has a negative correlation with ADHD (r=-.620, p<.001).
From this study, it is observed that there is a correlation between the dietary attitudes and food behaviors and ADHD. However, it is necessary to study deeply how these dietary attitudes and food behaviors would affect negatively on ADHD.
Recently, the nuclear family becomes a general form of family in our society, and the elementary school students have one free lunch from schools. Thus, the responsibility of guiding dietary attitudes and habits of elementary school students is transferred from families to schools and teachers. Therefore, more proper nutrition education for students at elementary schools is necessary. However, the distinctive nutritional education is needed for the students with the high level of ADHD to help their understanding considering the different levels of attention.