Objective: To assess the dietary intake of ethnic minority students at two ethnic boarding junior secondary schools of Thai Nguyen province in 2019.
Research subjects and methods: The study was conducted according to the descriptive method, cross-sectional design on ethnic minority students and their dietary intake at two ethnic boarding junior secondary schools of Thai Nguyen province. Using pre-designed questionnaires to collect demographic information, frequency of eating and using the food weight method to determine the total energy and nutrient composition in the dietary intake.
Results: The total dietary energy of students (1939 ± 327.0) was insufficient compared to the recommended needs, only 88.1% in male and 94.6% in female. Energy from lipid (23.4%) provided enough compared to the recommended needs, however, the energy from protein (17.8%) provided an excess and from carbohydrates (58.8%) was lacking compared to the recommended needs. The rate between the three energy-producing substances (17.8:23.4:58.8) was not reached compared to the recommended needs (14:20:66). Lipid, animal lipid, vegetable lipid provided enough compared to the recommended needs. While, protein, animal protein provided redundancy, vegetable protein and carbohydrates were lacking compared to the recommended needs. Substances that do not produce energy and fiber were mostly lacking in compared to the recommended needs. Only vitamin B1, vitamin B3 and zinc provided enough compared to the recommended needs. The rate of Ca/P was reasonable.
Conclusion: The dietary intake of the ethnic minority students at two ethnic boarding junior secondary schools of Thai Nguyen province was not balanced and reasonable.
