Association of How Often Students Have Meals in a Dining Room of Dormitory Where They Live with What Kind of Menu They Prefer : An Ecologic Study Conducted by Student Dormitories of Company K

To study how to improve students' fullness in school life when they start living alone, we carried out a questionnaire for students who live in student dormitories. Then we observed the relationship of their frequency of having breakfast and supper served in five student dormitories of Company K in Tokyo wards with students' food preference and fullness for meals. The rate of having breakfast served in a dormitory almost every day ranged from 32.4 to 78.6 % at five dormitories. Between women's dormitories, 53.6 % of students who live in a type C room (both bathtub and kitchen are equipped) had supper served in the dormitory almost every day, while the rate of students who live in a type A room (neither bathtub nor kitchen are equipped and there is not the public kitchen) were 31.6% (test for the proportion, p<0.05). Between women's dormitories, 40.2% of students in a type C room had breakfast there almost every day, while the rate of students in a type A room were 63.2% (not significant). In every dormitory, students gave fish dish as one among three most unfavorable dishes. As favorable dishes, students gave udon (traditional noodles) at breakfast, curry and rice, Hamburg steak at supper. Dormitories which had more students whose favorite is a fish dish had less students who have breakfast and supper almost every day served in five dormitories (spearman correlation, p <0.05). Dormitories which had more students whose favorite is noodles had more students who have breakfast almost every day in five dormitories. No significant relationship was shown between the number of students who had dormitory's meals and the number of students who were satisfied with dormitory's meal. In every dormitory, students required much vegetable in meals. It might be possible that the number of students who have dormitory's meals would be higher by decreasing fish dish from a menu, along with increasing noodles at breakfast and curry and rice, Hamburg steak at supper. However, statistically increased type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in Japan, possibly through a recent indication of rough and slovenly dietary habits, suggested that it would be necessary to consider novel ways of cooking fish which are harmonious with vegetables instead of decreasing fish dish from dining tables. Such effort would be helpful to give a healthier dormitory life. Our study showed that students who like fish probably do not have meals of their resident dormitory so often. To study students' preference for meat and noodles will also be necessary.