Arindah Nur Sartika, S.Gz., M.Gizi. Pengarang

Since diet consists of complex food, assessment of diet using diet quality is preferable. Literature found eating behavior was related to diet quality. This study aimed to see the association of eating behavior and diet quality among adults living in urban and rural areas. A cross-sectional study in East Java was conducted with 185 total subjects. This study used proportional proportion to size to select villages in selected urban and rural areas. A structured questionnaire and 2 x 24-h food recall were used in the study. To assess diet quality, average intake was scored using diet quality index – international (DQI-I). The results showed significant association of eating behavior towards living area in term of meal frequency, eating place during lunch and dinner, also breakfast habit. People in urban mostly ate 1-2 meals, ate outside home, and skipped breakfast. Compared to urban population, rural population mostly ate 3 meals per day, and had lower percentage of eating out and breakfast skippers. The study also found significant difference of diet quality score (total score, score of adequacy, score of moderation, and score of overall balance) between urban and rural adults. Generally, people in urban had lower score of diet quality compared to people in rural. In addition, snacking frequency was found influencing diet quality in urban. People who had no snack was found having higher risk to have diet quality score below median compared to snack eaters. However, promotion on choosing healthy snack should be addressed since some of snack consumed by adults could trigger excessive intake of fats. Among various snacks available in the society, fruits is more prefarable to improve quality of diet. Keywords: diet quality, eating behavior, adults, urban, rural