ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1659550
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Socio-Cultural Factors in Human Nutrition: The Importance of Multidimensional Approaches.View all 10 articles
Socioeconomic disparities in dietary diversity among adults in Bengbu, China: Unraveling the mediating role of nutrition literacy
Provisionally accepted
- Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, China
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Background：Socioeconomic status (SES) was linked to dietary diversity and nutrition literacy (NL) was associated with food choices. This study aims to investigate the association of NL with SES and dietary diversity, and to assess its potential mediating role between SES and dietary diversity among Chinese adults. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was previously conducted in Bengbu, China, including 2,208 adults aged≥18. SES was primarily measured according to education level and monthly income. Dietary diversity scores (DDS) were collected through a simplified diet frequency questionnaire. NL was evaluated through a twelve-item short-form NL scale. Multiple linear regression and Hayes’ PROCESS framework were used for analysis. Results: Significant education- and monthly income-based disparities in dietary diversity were observed (both p<0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, each one-unit increase in education and monthly income was associated with a significant 0.29-point (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.20-0.37) and 0.22-point (95% CI: 0.13-0.30) increase in DDS, respectively, and with a 3.25-point (95% CI: 2.79-3.71) and 1.44-point (95% CI: 0.97-1.92) increase in NL, respectively. NL significantly mediated the association between monthly income or education and DDS (ꞵ = 0.180, 95% CI: 0.146-0.216; ꞵ = 0.136, 95% CI: 0.107-0.168, respectively). Conclusions: Sufficient NL can increase dietary diversity and plays a pivotal mediating role in the association between SES and dietary diversity. Intervention strategies should target populations with low SES and inadequate NL to improve dietary diversity and reduce economic inequalities in health.
Keywords: dietary diversity, Nutrition literacy, Socioeconomic status, adults, China
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Hu, Tian and Liu. 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: Huaqing Liu, lhqbbmc@163.com
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