Dietary taurine supplementation in school meals has positive effect on school attitude assessment in Korean high school students

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementation with taurine-rich foods on school attitude assessment (SAA) in high school students. A total of 134 subjects were divided into a taurine-rich food supplemented (TS) group (68 subjects) and control group (66 subjects). For the TS group, school dinners supplemented with taurine-rich foods were provided for 5 days and average dietary amount of taurine supplementation was 466.2 mg/school dinner. Control group ate dinner at home or at restaurant ad libitum. The school attitude assessment survey-revised and 24-h recall method were used for SAA and dietary assessment, respectively. There were no significant differences in scores of dietary attitudes between the TS and control groups by gender. Average dietary taurine intake of the TS group (649.8 mg/day in males, 634.5 mg/day in females) was significantly higher compared to the control group (392.4 mg/day in males, 334.4 mg/day in females) (p < 0.01 in males and p < 0.001 in females, respectively). Total SAA scores in the TS group were significantly higher compared to the control group (p < 0.01) for attitudes toward teachers, goal valuation, and motivation/self-regulation (p < 0.01). Dietary taurine intake was showed positive correlations with scores for academic self-perception (p < 0.05), attitudes towards teachers (p < 0.001), goal valuation (p < 0.01), motivation/self-regulation (p < 0.05), and total scores (p < 0.01). According to the results, dietary taurine supplementation in school meals for 5 days had a positive effect on SAA in high school students. Therefore, dietary taurine supplementation in school and home meals may be necessary for improving SAA of high school students.