Dynamics of Chinese Diet Divergence from Chinese Food Pagoda and Its Association with Adiposity and Influential Factors: 2004–2011

Abstract

Nutrition transition in China has a strong impact on dietary quality and health of Chinese consumers. This study developed the diet quality divergence Index (DQD), the divergence between real food consumption and the Chinese food pagoda 2016 (CFP), to measure the quality of diet in China. Using four waves of data (2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011) from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study shed light on the transition of diet quality for Chinese residents. Results indicate that the DQD generally decreased and Chinese diet quality improved during 2004–2011. The divergence was mainly caused by over-consumption of legumes and nuts, and under-consumption of milk and milk products. Rising income and urbanization were positively correlated with diet quality for the people with low DQD. However, both of them had negative impacts on diet quality for those with high DQD. Females and rural residents held a lower DQD than their counterparts. The results also revealed that healthy food preference, education, dining at home, household size, proportions of teens (6–17) and elders (over 64) in the families are positively correlated with Chinese diet quality. However, labor intensity, frequency of drinking alcohol, and smoking have negative impacts on diet quality. Moreover, higher DQD was found to be associated with increasing risks of overweight/obesity. Therefore, we suggest national healthy policies should pay more attention to nutrition education. It is also necessary to focus on populations with poor diet quality and to adopt measures to control drinking alcohol and smoking.

Effects of the poverty alleviation relocation program on diet quality among low-income households

“…In terms of the structure of the DQD, the largest part of the DQD comes from legumes and nuts. Its QDQ increases gradually from 2016 to 2019, consistent with the results found by Zhou et al (2020). The second largest part of the divergence derives from milk and milk products, which is followed by aquatic products, fruits and eggs.…”

“…We use the diet quality divergence (DQD) index as a proxy for diet quality. Following Zhou et al (2020), we calculate DQD as the absolute divergence value (percent) between real food consumption and recommended intake levels specified in the Chinese Food Pagoda (CFP) 2016. The CFP 2016 is illustrated in Chinese dietary guidelines 2016, which provides the daily recommended intakes of eight food categories for adults with age from 18 to 64 years old.…”

“…In addition, DQD derived from the CFP 2016 is especially suitable for Chinese people. The food consumption and dietary habits in China are different from those in western countries, where healthy eating index (HEI), diet quality index (DQI), Mediterranean diet scale (MDS) and their derivatives are commonly used to measure diet quality (Zhou et al , 2020).…”

“…The range of DQD is false[0, +∞false), and a smaller DQD index indicates better diet quality and vice versa. When DQD approaches 0, it means the respondent's diet is fully consistent with the intake standards of CFP 2016 (Zhou et al , 2020).…”

A Systematic Review of Diet Quality Index and Obesity among Chinese Adults

“…Recently, Zhou et al developed a standalone diet quality divergence Index (abbreviated as DQD(2) to distinguish from the DQD above) to assess the deviation of the diet from the CHFP [49]. They assessed data from 30,626 adults in the CHNS and demonstrated that, as BMI increased, the DQD(2) increased.…”