Dietary patterns and their associations with health behaviours in Korea

Dietary habits, including dietary patterns, have been associated with the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer. The objective of the present study was to evaluate Korean dietary patterns as assessed by using an FFQ and associations of dietary patterns with lifestyle risk factors.

Dietary patterns were analysed by factor analysis using a sixteen-group FFQ. The associations between dietary patterns and lifestyle risk factors were investigated by logistic regression analysis.

The National Cancer Center in South Korea.

The study population included 11 440 participants aged ≥ 30 years who were recruited between 2002 and 2007.

Compared with the lowest quartile intake of each dietary pattern, current smoking was positively associated with the Western pattern (OR = 1·55 for the highest quartile, 95 % CI 1·27, 1·88; P < 0·001) and the traditional pattern (OR = 1·34, 95 % CI 1·11, 1·62; P = 0·002) in men, but was inversely associated with the healthy pattern in both genders (P < 0·001) and the traditional pattern (OR = 0·52, 95 % CI 0·36, 0·75; P = 0·001) in women. Alcohol consumption was positively associated with all patterns in both genders, while no association was observed with the healthy pattern in women. Physical activity and dietary supplement use were positively associated with all patterns in both genders, with the exception of physical activity in women, which showed an inverse association with the traditional pattern.

Dietary patterns are strongly associated with health behaviours. The possible confounding effect of other risk behaviours should be appropriately considered when conducting nutritional epidemiological studies.