박승국1, 김현주2, 권영민3, 공미희2

1인제대학교 의과대학 해운대백병원 가정의학과, 2제주대학교 의학전문대학원 제주대학교병원 가정의학과교실, 3삼육서울병원 가정의학과

Background: Nutrition label reading is helpful in attaining a healthy diet. Nutrition label use and its related factors
have been studied in many Korean articles, but their research samples were the general population and not
chronic disease patients. This study aimed to explore the use of nutrition labels and its relation to dietary intake
among chronic disease patients in Korea.
Methods: A total of 3160 respondents aged≥20 years from the 2008-2009 Fourth Korean National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES-IV) participated in the study. Their chronic medical conditions included
hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, diabetes and/or stroke and they were interviewed
regarding their use of nutrition labels. Nutrition intake was also estimated by 24-hour dietary recalls.
Results: Overall, 10.4% of the chronic disease patients reported to using nutrition labels. The nutrients they
looked at first were total calories, fat and cholesterol. Factors related to reading nutrition labels were relatively
higher education, high body mass index and lower frequency of alcohol intake in males and relatively younger
age and higher education in females. Nutrition label users consumed lower total calories, protein and fat in the
male CAD group, lower total calories and carbohydrate in both diabetes and total groups and lower total calories
and fiber in the female stroke group.
Conclusions: Our study found that, in Korea, a significantly lower rate of patients with chronic disease read nutrition
labels. Strategies need to be developed to improve clinical application of nutrition labels in this population.
Korean J Health Promot 2014;14(4):131-140
Keywords: Nutrition labeling, Chronic disease, Utilization