Dietary Behaviours Among Han, Tujia and Miao Primary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Chongqing, China

Zhengjie Cai; Jinli Xian; Xianglong Xu; Ziwei Zhang; Camila Araujo; Manoj Sharma; Yong Zhao

doi:10.2147/RMHP.S249101

Dietary Behaviours Among Han, Tujia and Miao Primary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Chongqing, China

Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2020 Aug 24:13:1309-1318. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S249101. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Zhengjie Cai^#^{1

2

3}, Jinli Xian^#^{1

2

3}, Xianglong Xu^{4

5

6}, Ziwei Zhang⁷, Camila Araujo⁸, Manoj Sharma⁹, Yong Zhao^{1

2

3

10}

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
² Research Center for Medicine and Social Development, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
³ The Innovation Center for Social Risk Governance in Health, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁵ Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁶ China-Australia Joint Research Center for Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health, Science Center, Xi'an, Shanxi, People's Republic of China.
⁷ The Second Clinical College, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
⁸ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
⁹ Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Nevada , Las Vegas, NV, USA.
¹⁰ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Nutrition and Health, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background and purpose: Exploring the differences of children's dietary behaviours from different nationalities could provide a reference for targeted nutritional interventions. This study aims to assess the dietary behaviours among Han, Tujia and Miao primary school students and the differences among the ethnic groups.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional survey included 556 primary school students (249 Han, 76 Tujia and 231 Miao students) aged 6-13 years from the representative minority areas of Chongqing, China. Data were collected with a self-administered or one-on-one interview-based questionnaire encompassing questions on sociodemographics, eating habits and dietary intake. Eating habits and dietary intake were categorized into health-protective and health-risk dietary behaviours. χ² tests were conducted to examine the differences in eating habits and dietary intake among the three ethnic groups. Forward stepwise logistic regression models were performed to check the factors affecting dietary intake.

Results: Fewer than half of the students had health-protective dietary behaviours in terms of rice, fruit, fish, eggs and milk intake. Compared with Han students, Tujia students were more likely to meet the recommended intake of vegetables (OR = 2.13, 95% CI [1.22-3.69]), less likely to meet the recommended intake of meat (OR = 0.58, 95% CI [0.35-0.94]) and fish (OR = 0.55, 95% CI [0.32-0.94]); Miao students were more likely to meet the recommended intake of vegetables (OR = 1.73, 95% CI [1.20-2.51]), fruits (OR = 1.62, 95% CI [1.16-2.28]) and water (OR = 1.59, 95% CI [1.12-2.26]) than those of Han students.

Conclusion: The low proportion of health-protective dietary behaviours among primary school students from Han, Tujia and Miao ethnicities was found in this study. There were differences in dietary behaviours among the three ethnic groups. This study could provide a reference for implementing national dietary guidelines in consideration of socioeconomic status, ways of preparing and consuming foods, traditional foods and customs of different ethnic groups.

Keywords: dietary behaviours; dietary guidelines; minority nationalities; primary school students.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Chongqing science and technology communication and popularization project (cstc2016kp-sfhdB0002). The authors would like to thank all team members for their support and contributions to this study sincerely. And the authors would like to express their gratitude to all primary school students who agreed to participate in this survey.