The purpose of this study was to investigate the salt content of middle school lunch meals and salt-related dietary behaviors in Gyeongbuk area. The researcher collected 231 food items categorizes into 17 menu item groups from lunch samples served at 4 middle school foodservice operations and measured the salinity of the food items, and calculated sodium and salt contents from the salinity. In items of total of salt content in meals for lunch is 4.72 g, which is 94% of the daily target intake (5 g) presented by the Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans(KDRIs). School lunches provided by the menu''s total average salinity is 1.07%. Boiled-vegetables were highest 1.98% in salinity, followed by kimchi 1.95%, fresh-vegetables 1.77%, roasted foods 1.60%, stir-fried foods 1.46%, hard-boiled foods 1.37%, pan-fried foods 1.23%, one-dish rices · noodles 1.10% were significantly higher. In terms of total salt content per servings is 0.69 g. One-dish rices · noodles 1.89 g, stews 1.38 g, steamed foods 1.13 g, broths 1.05 g, soups 1.01 g, kimchies 0.87 g, roasted foods 0.77 g, hard-boiled foods 0.74 g were higher than the total average(0.69 g) salt contents. Greatest contributor to the salt content in a meal was one-dish rices · noodles(40.5%).
The salt-related dietary behaviors were collected from subjects, including 253 male and 210 female middle school students. This survey was conducted using self-boarding questionnaires. By the stage of salt-related dietary behaviors, the ‘Pre-contemplation stage(not considering reduced salt intake)'' comprised 57.3%, ‘Contemplation stage(considering reduced salt intake)'' 12.2%, ''Preparation stage(before reducing salt intake)'' 7.4% and ''Action stage(reduced salt intake and maintenance)'' 23.2%. In the stage of change, there were significant differences according to the school(p<0.01), and were not differences by general characteristics and parent''s. Male had higher salt-related dietary behavior score more than female, students who had more pocket money had higher the score, and action group had lower the score than other group. Among the 10 items of salt-related dietary behaviors, only 4 of them showed over average score(2.92/5.00), including behaviors of likes kimchi, completely consuming snacks and processed foods, drinking the broths of soups. The salt-related dietary score of male was higher than female, action group''s score was lower than other stage. Restaurant food is more saltiness than home and school foodservice. Only 22.5% of subjects had experience of receiving nutritional education about salt related intake.