ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Policy and Economics
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Clean Energy and Digital Innovations into Sustainable Rural Food Systems: Pathways to Enhanced Human Nutrition in Developing EconomiesView all articles
The impacts of digital payment capability on food consumption upgrading in rural households: Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu, China
- 2Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
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Globally, rural areas in developing countries face food insecurity and malnutrition, threatening both public health and sustainable development. This study examines the impact of digital payment capability (DPC) on the upgrading of food consumption patterns (UFCP) among rural Chinese households. Guided by Sen's Feasible Capability framework, we construct a multidimensional DPC index comprising information access, financial inclusion, digital engagement and external training. We apply this index to 2,078 households from the China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS) and adopt the Ford Behavioral Model to analyze both direct effects and mediating pathways. Our main findings are as follows. First, DPC significantly enhances UFCP, with the effect largely mediated by increases in household income and improvements in the health awareness of household heads. Second, the positive association between DPC and UFCP is strongest in eastern and western provinces, in peri-urban areas and in regions with more advanced digital economies. Third, dietary gains from higher DPC are most pronounced in households led by middle-aged, less-educated or less-healthy individuals, and in families with middle to high incomes. These results underscore the potential of digital payment services to drive dietary transformation in rural China. To maximize impact, policymakers should expand digital-payment infrastructure and pair it with targeted income-support and health-literacy programs, thereby fostering more diverse diets and greater well-being in rural populations.
Keywords: digital payment capability (DFC), Rural households, the upgrading of food consumption pattern(UFCP), Ford Behavioral Model, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Received: 11 Sep 2025; Accepted: 04 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Wang, Wan and Zhou. 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: Shenwei Wan, wanshenwei@ruc.edu.cn
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