ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1608024
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Food Consumption and Production in the 21st Century: Volume IIView all articles
Family Composition, Income, and Healthy Diet in Rural China: Evidence from Three Provinces
Provisionally accepted
- College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
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A healthy diet is essential for public health and plays a central role in sustainable food systems. This paper investigates the impact of family composition and income on dietary health within rural households in China, analyzing how these factors correlate with dietary diversity and quality. Utilizing a 3-day food consumption record data across three provinces, we apply ordinary least squares regression to explore the relationships with three key dietary health indicators: the Entropy Index of dietary diversity (E), the Chinese Food Pagoda Score (CFPS), and the Chinese Healthy Eating Index (CHEI). Our findings indicate that higher household income significantly improves all measures of dietary health, affirming the critical role of economic factors in achieving a nutritious diet. In contrast, a higher proportion of elderly individuals within households is associated with poorer dietary outcomes, suggesting specific challenges in meeting the nutritional needs of aging populations. These findings offer insights into how demographic and income factors shape dietary practices, contributing to discussions on sustainable food consumption in developing regions. This research contributes to the understanding of dietary health dynamics in rural China and supports broader efforts to attain sustainable development goals related to health and well-being.
Keywords: Healthy diet, Sustainable food consumption, Family composition, Income, 13
Received: 08 Apr 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Amar, Zhao and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nimra Amar, College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Cong Pan, College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
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