Education and food consumption behavior in China: Household analysis and policy implications

This study was concerned with estimating the association between education level and food consumption in China to determine whether an increase in education is related to the rapidly occurring dietary transition in China and whether knowledge of this relationship can assist efforts to identify target groups for improving their nutritional status and diversifying their diets. In projecting food demand patterns over the long run, particularly in economies undergoing the rapid structural transformation and urbanization expected to occur in many countries in Asia over the next 25 years, changes in tastes, lifestyles, and socio-demographic characteristics may be important influences on food demand. While such analysis for all developing economies serves a useful purpose in initial attempts to understand the magnitude and nature of such shifts, it is far more important from a global perspective to document and understand these phenomena for a country as large as China.;The primary objective of this study was to examine the effect of parental education on the pattern of food consumption and macronutrient (caloric, protein, and fat) intake for 3,543 Chinese households belonging to 8 provinces of China. Parental education was separated into male education (educational level of the male head of household) and female education (educational level of the female head of household) to study the gender-disaggregated association of education and food consumption. The data for the study came from the 1991 round of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS91).;Given the phenomenal growth of demand for varying foods in China as well as the growth of the food industry, the findings of this study can have important implications related to the demand and supply of food in China. Knowledge of the food consumption patterns associated with higher educational levels provides information that can be incorporated into policies designed to alter people's eating habits and for raising dietary and nutritional standards in China. Implications for the food industry include the ability to determine segments of the population whose eating habits and food consumption patterns have a bearing on the growth of the food industry, and to project future household demand for food, based on increases in the educational level of the Chinese population. Changing demand for food in China and the capacity for meeting that demand has wider implications for the entire APEC region. Estimates indicate that exports of food to the APEC region by countries like the United States, are largely driven by China's demand for grain and increasingly, for other foods. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).