Temporary Workers’ Skipping of Meals and Eating Alone in South Korea: The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2013–2016

Ji-Sook Kong, Kyoung-Bok Min and Jin-Young Min
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Ji-Sook Kong: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Kyoung-Bok Min: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 03080, Korea
Jin-Young Min: Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-11

Abstract: Available evidence suggests that social disadvantages are inextricably linked to unhealthy eating behaviors. Given that temporary workers face insecure employment and uncertainty in their work’s terms and conditions, issues relevant to maintaining healthy eating behavior are likely to be affected. This study investigated the association between temporary employments and, specifically, the status and frequency of meal skipping and of eating alone among temporary and permanent Korean workers. We used data from the 2013–2016 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A total of 5912 working people were included as the study population. We classified them as temporary workers ( n = 3036) and permanent workers ( n = 2876). Eating behaviors included meal skipping and eating alone. The rate and frequency of meal skipping and eating alone were higher in temporary workers. After adjustment for potential confounders, the likelihoods for temporary workers’ skipping lunch was twice as high (OR = 1.95, 95% CI 1.45–2.63) as for permanent workers. In particular, temporary workers had four-fold-increased odds (OR = 4.12, 95% CI 2.29–7.41) of eating alone three times per day relative to permanent workers. We found that temporary workers were more likely to skip meals and eat alone than were permanent workers.

Keywords: temporary worker; eating behaviors; meal skipping; eating alone; Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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