Relationship Among Self-Reported Fatigue, Dietary Taurine Intake, and Dietary Habits in Korean College Students - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - page 243

Chapter 24
Relationship Among Self-Reported Fatigue,
Dietary Taurine Intake, and Dietary Habits
in Korean College Students

So Yoon Park , Jeong Soon You , and Kyung Ja Chang

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among
self-reported fatigue, dietary taurine intake, and dietary habits in Korean college
students. The subjects were 239 college students (142 male and 97 female) residing
in the Incheon, Korea. Self-reported fatigue score was determined using a question-
naire of “Subjective Symptoms of Fatigue Test.” The average physical fatigue score
( p < 0.001), mental fatigue score ( p < 0.01), nervous fatigue score ( p < 0.001), and
total fatigue score ( p < 0.001) of female students were significantly higher com-
pared to male students. Average dietary taurine intake in male and female was
102.5 mg/day and 98.0 mg/day, respectively. There was no significant correlation
between self-reported fatigue score and dietary taurine intake. However, there was
significantly negative correlation between self-reported fatigue scores and dietary
habits such as “eating meals at regular times” ( p < 0.05), “eating foods such as meat,
fish, eggs, and beans more than two times a day” ( p < 0.05), “eating greenish yellow
vegetable every meal” ( p < 0.05), and “avoiding eating sweet foods everyday”
( p < 0.05). Therefore, in order to reduce self-reported fatigue, it is necessary to pro-
vide nutrition education and counseling for better dietary habit in Korean college
students, and a further large-scale study is needed about relationship of self-reported
fatigue and dietary taurine intake.

Abbreviations

BMI Body mass index

BFP Body fat percentage

S. Y. Park ￿ J. S. You ￿ K. J. Chang ( * )
Department of Food and Nutrition , Inha University , Incheon , South Korea
e-mail: [e-mail]