Analysis of nutritional status and food consumption in China

The objectives of this study are to describe the current nutrition status and nutritional evaluation of China, to analyze the relationship between nutrition status and food consumption at household level of China. Descriptive nutritional analysis and multivariable regression analysis by different regions were used in this study. There are two parts of cross-sectional data sets to be adopted in this study, growth performance of preschool children data and household information, which were collected in 1998 by Chinese Food and Nutrition Surveillance System and State of Statistics Bureau of China. The result of descriptive nutritional analysis showed that, since unconscionable diet pattern and over consumption of high fat food, over-nutrition and obesity had been becoming primary problem in urban areas. In rural areas, under-nutrition and the change of household food consumption should be paid more attention, especially to low-income group. Constant elasticity models were employed in this study in order to measure the relationship between nutritional status and household information by different regions. The deviation score of DDP for major foods would be dependent variables in the models estimated. The explanatory variables consist of household income, household size, education level of both household head and the spouse, and some of major food prices. This study produced consistent and important result. It showed that there were important ways in which price changed could affect the consumption of various observations groups and that price chang had a differential effect to different groups of people. At the same time, some of factors, such as educational level of household head and the spouse had no statistical significance.