Education and Food Consumption Patterns in China: Household Analysis and Policy Implications

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between adult (male and female) education level and food consumption patterns in 3543 Chinese households to determine whether an increase in education was related to consumption of different foods. Data from the 1991 administration of the China Health and Nutrition Survey were used for this study. A multistage, random cluster process was used to draw a sample of 3543 households from eight northern and southern provinces of China. Data from the household component and the health and nutrition component of the survey were used for this study. The primary explanatory variable of the education level of the male and female heads of household was measured in years of schooling. The categorical dependent variable indicated whether or not a household consumed a certain food over the 3-day time period. Sociodemographic variables such as income, rural-urban residence, province, and household size were included in the analyses as control variables. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between education (male and female) and the likelihood of consuming different foods. Data were analyzed using SAS PROC LOGISTIC, which modeled the probability of a food being consumed. The education level of the male and female heads of household had a differential impact on food consumption patterns. Female education had an effect on the consumption of nutritious and preferred foods that was independent of the effect of income; male education, on the contrary, had an effect on the consumption of these foods only when it interacted with income. The findings of this study have important implications for raising dietary and nutritional standards in China and for addressing the coexisting problems of undernutrition and overnutrition. In addition, the study highlights the important relationship between female education and food consumption within households. Implications for the rapidly growing food industry in China include the ability to identify consumer characteristics, such as education, that are associated with increasing or declining demand for different foods.