The purpose of this study was to develop a health management program that can effectively prevent metabolic syndrome through sodium management by analyzing the attitudes toward sodium intake and the factors associated with metabolic syndrome according to eating behaviors in the medical examinees who had medical check-ups at the general medical examination center of S hospital in Seoul, and ultimately contribute to the health promotion of the subjects.
People with metabolic syndrome had a lower level of sodium in the blood than those without metabolic syndrome. In the group of subjects with metabolic syndrome and diagnosed with disease, males had a low level of sodium in the blood, while all the subjects in the group and females showed a high level of sodium in the blood. On the other hand, when the daily intake levels of nutrients were compared, daily sodium intake was found to be higher in people with metabolic syndrome than in those without it. However, the sodium intake of people diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and diagnosed with disease was lower than that of those without any diseases.
The score for sodium-related nutritional knowledge was higher in the subjects with metabolic syndrome and those with metabolic syndrome and diagnosed with disease than in those without metabolic syndrome and diagnosed with no disease, indicating that those with metabolic syndrome had a large amount of sodium-related nutrition knowledge needed for health care and health maintenance.
However, the subjects with metabolic syndrome had a high score of eating attitudes about sodium, which showed that they tended to have undesirable sodium-related eating attitudes. Yet, their scores of sodium-related eating behaviors and taste preferences were low, indicating they had a tendency to try to maintain eating behaviors and taste preferences in a desirable direction.
On the other hand, in the group of disease-diagnosed subjects with metabolic syndrome, the scores of eating attitudes about sodium were low, and this result indicated that they had desirable attitudes. However, their scores of eating behaviors and taste preferences regarding sodium were actually found to be high, showing that they tended not to put into practice sodium-related nutrition knowledge, eating attitudes and taste preferences in their actual daily life.
There was no direct correlation between the performance of health-promoting behaviors (smoking, drinking, exercise, and sleeping time) and metabolic syndrome. Yet, there was a positive correlation between smoking status and drinking status.
The results of this study showed that the subjects of this study, who already had interest in health and visited the hospital to receive a medical checkup, had a tendency to try to maintain proper eating attitudes and eating behaviors through a lot of information and education about health, but their knowledge about health did not actually lead to desirable behaviors in their daily life. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further research to compare the sodium intake attitudes and eating behaviors of those who have regular medical checkups and those who do not, and furthermore, investigate the effects of the Korean medical examination system on the public health. In addition, it is necessary to develop various health education programs so that our knowledge of health will lead to proper eating attitudes and eating behaviors.