Sociodemographic disparity in the diet quality transition among Chinese adults from 1991 to 2011

Abstract

Objective This study investigates secular trends in diet quality distribution and related socioeconomic disparity from 1991 to 2011 in the Chinese adult population. Methods The analysis uses the 1991–2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey data on 13,853 participants (6,876 men; 6,977 women) ages 18 to 65 with 56,319 responses. Dietary assessment was carried out over a 3-day period with 24-hour recalls combined a household food inventory. We tailored Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010 (named as tAHEI) to measure diet quality and performed quantile regression to investigate shifts in tAHEI scores at different percentiles and used mixed-effect linear regression to examine average diet quality trend and potential sociodemographic disparity. Results The energy-adjusted mean tAHEI scores increased from 36.9 (36.7–37.1) points in 1991 to 50.3 (50.1–50.5) in 2011 for men (p < 0.001) and from 35.6 (35.4–35.8) to 46.9 (46.7– 47.1) for women (p < 0.001). The covariates-adjusted score of polyunsaturated fatty acids increased by 6.8 (6.6, 7.0) and 7.0 (6.9, 7.2) and the score of long chain ((ω-3) fats increased by 5.3 (5.2, 5.4) and 5.3 (5.2, 5.5) in men and women, respectively, while the cereal fiber and red meat scores decreased slightly. Increasing tAHEI score occurred across the entire distribution and diet quality transition varied across sociodemographic groups. Conclusion Chinese diet quality is far from optimal with moderate improvement over 21-year period. Findings suggest that nutritional intervention should give priority to low income, low urbanized communities, and southern provincial adults with low diet quality in China.

Validity and reliability of a simplified food frequency questionnaire: A cross sectional study among physical health examination adults in southwest region of China

“…All participants were informed about the study and obtained formal consents before being interviewed. This study was approved by the Ethics Based on an FFQ used in Chinese population 10 , involving the eating habits of southwest China, such as preserved meat, chilli and soy products, a new SFFQ was designed. The SFFQ consisted of 50 items of food.…”

“…It is generally assumed that the questionnaire length has a signi cant effect on the survey response rate as respondents get tired, bored and/or distracted by external factors 5 . Some simpli ed food frequency questionnaires (SFFQs) have been designed and used in special populations [9][10] . However, the validity of SFFQ in Chinese population undergoing physical examination is not discussed.…”

Spatiotemporal Variation of the Association between Urbanicity and Incident Hypertension among Chinese Adults

“…Globalization might facilitate uneven dietary development between the least and more urbanized population by making energy-dense foods more available and accessible to the least urbanized on the one hand, and promoting better diet quality through increasing the dietary diversity among the more urbanized on the other hand [40]. Prior evidence showed that more highly urbanized adults had lower diet quality before 2004, but higher diet quality after because of a more substantial increase in their diet quality over time [41]. Further studies are needed to test what contextual factors and mechanisms can explain the regional variation and secular change in the association of urbanicity with HTN occurrence.…”

Validity and reliability of a simplified food frequency questionnaire: A cross sectional study among physical health examination adults in southwest region of China

“…All participants were informed about the study and obtained formal consents before being interviewed. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Based on an FFQ used for Chinese population, 10 and by combining the eating habits of southwest China, such as preserved meat, chilli and soy products intaking, a SFFQ was designed for physical examination population. The SFFQ consisted of 50 items of food that are commonly consumed in the previous month.…”

“…It is generally assumed that the questionnaire length has a signi cant effect on the survey response rate as respondents get tired, bored and/or distracted by external factors 5 . Some simpli ed food frequency questionnaires (SFFQs) have been designed and used in special populations [9][10] . However, the accuracy of SFFQ in Chinese population undergoing physical examination is absent.…”