The impact of changes in dietary knowledge on adult overweight and obesity in China

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 23;12(6):e0179551. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179551. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are rapidly growing threats in China. Improvement in dietary knowledge can potentially prevent overweight and obesity, conditions which are receiving substantial attention from international organizations and governments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of changes in dietary knowledge on adult overweight and obesity, using a balanced panel data consisting of 10,401 samples from the 2006, 2009, and 2011 iterations of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Results indicate that overweight and obesity are becoming increasingly problematic in China, and the level of dietary knowledge among Chinese adults needs improvement. Moreover, the empirical results indicate that changes in dietary knowledge among adults has no significant influence on adult overweight and obesity, a likely result of lacking systematic dietary knowledge and having inadequate guidance on overweight/obesity-related behaviors.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Body Mass Index
  • China
  • Female
  • Health Behavior
  • Health Education*
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / ethnology*
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Nutrition Policy
  • Overweight / ethnology*
  • Overweight / psychology*
  • Overweight / therapy
  • Regression Analysis
  • Rural Population
  • Sex Factors
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Urban Population

Grants and funding

Jin acknowledges funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC-71273233) and the Major Program of the Key Research Institute of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 15JJD790032). Zhou and Cheng acknowledge funding support from the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program from Chinese Academic of Agricultural Science (ASTIP-IFND-2016). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.