Comparative Study of Dietary Patterns by Living Arrangements: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2013-2015

This study aimed to identify the dietary patterns of Koreans, comparing them according to their living arrangements, and to determine factors associated with the patterns. We analyzed nutritional data of 6719 Korean adults aged 19-64 years from the 2013-2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey using the exploratory factor and hierarchical and k-means cluster analyses. We used multinominal logistic regression to compare factors associated with each dietary pattern. We identified three dietary patterns based on meal preference and dessert type: "traditional meal with healthy dessert", "meal only", and "unhealthy dessert" (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.90, Bartlett's test of sphericity p < 0.001). The "unhealthy dessert" dietary pattern was more frequent in people living alone (51.7%) than in those living with others (41.8%). Weight control, dining out, eating breakfast, and sleep were significantly associated with the "meal only"; eating breakfast was associated with the "unhealthy dessert" dietary pattern among those living alone. Lifestyle factors were associated with unhealthy dietary patterns in Korean adults living alone, warranting the need for a healthy diet and promotion of modifiable health behaviors for this subgroup. Thus, clinicians must provide comprehensive assessments and multidimensional interventions while considering lifestyle factors and unhealthy dietary patterns to improve the health status of them.