Five-Year Trends in Dietary Intake by Gender Among Korean Preschoolers (2017–2021): Nationwide Survey-Based Surveillance Amid Rising Demand for Medical Care for Precocious Puberty
4 affiliations
- 1Institute for Agricultural Product Quality & Safety Assessment, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea
- 2Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
- 3NGS Center, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea
- 4Department of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Care-seeking for precocious puberty (PP) in South Korea has risen sharply, coinciding with dietary westernization among children. This study describes sex-specific and temporal dietary trends among Korean children aged 1–11 years, focusing on the 6–11-year band preceding the typical PP diagnosis threshold. Methods: Using KNHANES (2017–2021) dietary data and HIRA care-seeking counts with the sex-year aggregate, not the individual child. Sex differences were assessed using the Mann–Whitney U test, year-to-year patterns using a sex-by-year interaction model (n = 5 annual observations per sex), and dietary pattern structure using principal component analysis (PCA) on 12 food groups (n = 10 sex-year observations). Results: PP care-seeking rates rose in both sexes, substantially more in girls. Boys showed significantly higher intake of most food groups and macronutrients; within the 6–11-year band this held for meat, cola, and macronutrients (p = 0.008) but not legumes (p = 0.421). Macronutrient sex gaps numerically narrowed while meat and cola gaps widened over 2017–2021, though none reached significance. PCA identified a primary axis reflecting overall intake volume that separated boys and girls, and a secondary axis distinguishing a dairy/seaweed/beverage profile from a meat/egg/cola-dominant profile. Conclusions.: These findings describe sex-specific dietary patterns amid rising PP rates without establishing that intake volume explains the sex disparity, identifying candidate exposures for future research and cautioning against oversimplified dietary narratives.
Related
- Nationwide Surveillance and Control Measures during Large Measles Outbreak, Bangladesh, 2026
- Temporal Transitions in Dietary Patterns and Their Associations with Overweight and Obesity Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Southern China: Evidence from Four Rounds of Nutrition Surveillance, 2002–2022
- Healthcare utilization and medical costs among adults with selected psychiatric disorders: a nationwide retrospective cohort study
- Decoding suicidal crises in the emergency medical dispatch setting: protocol for a nationwide Swedish mixed-methods study
- Time to Treatment Failure as a Recorded Treatment-Process Measure in C-CAT. Reply to Comment on “Facility-Level Medical Oncology Specialist Availability and First-Line Time to Treatment Failure in Lung Cancer: A Nationwide C-CAT Registry Analysis. Curr. Oncol. 2026, 33, 462”
BibTeX
@article{yang2026fiveyear,
title = {{Five-Year Trends in Dietary Intake by Gender Among Korean Preschoolers (2017–2021): Nationwide Survey-Based Surveillance Amid Rising Demand for Medical Care for Precocious Puberty}},
author = {Junho Yang and Jinyoung Lee and Hyunji Og and Minsoo Jeong and Seungjun Lee},
journal = {Nutrients},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/nu18203445},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/18/20/3445},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Five-Year Trends in Dietary Intake by Gender Among Korean Preschoolers (2017–2021): Nationwide Survey-Based Surveillance Amid Rising Demand for Medical Care for Precocious Puberty
AU - Junho Yang
AU - Jinyoung Lee
AU - Hyunji Og
AU - Minsoo Jeong
AU - Seungjun Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Nutrients
DO - 10.3390/nu18203445
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/18/20/3445
AB - Background/Objectives: Care-seeking for precocious puberty (PP) in South Korea has risen sharply, coinciding with dietary westernization among children. This study describes sex-specific and temporal dietary trends among Korean children aged 1–11 years, focusing on the 6–11-year band preceding the typical PP diagnosis threshold. Methods: Using KNHANES (2017–2021) dietary data and HIRA care-seeking counts with the sex-year aggregate, not the individual child. Sex differences were assessed using the Mann–Whitney U test, year-to-year patterns using a sex-by-year interaction model (n = 5 annual observations per sex), and dietary pattern structure using principal component analysis (PCA) on 12 food groups (n = 10 sex-year observations). Results: PP care-seeking rates rose in both sexes, substantially more in girls. Boys showed significantly higher intake of most food groups and macronutrients; within the 6–11-year band this held for meat, cola, and macronutrients (p = 0.008) but not legumes (p = 0.421). Macronutrient sex gaps numerically narrowed while meat and cola gaps widened over 2017–2021, though none reached significance. PCA identified a primary axis reflecting overall intake volume that separated boys and girls, and a secondary axis distinguishing a dairy/seaweed/beverage profile from a meat/egg/cola-dominant profile. Conclusions.: These findings describe sex-specific dietary patterns amid rising PP rates without establishing that intake volume explains the sex disparity, identifying candidate exposures for future research and cautioning against oversimplified dietary narratives.
SN - 2072-6643
ER -