© 1991 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Designing Appropriate Nutrition Education for the Chinese: the Urban and Rural Nutrition Situation in Sichuan
Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, West China University of Medical Sciences Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, People's Republic of China
In the People's Republic of China, as in the West, diet has emerged as an important determinant of morbidity and mortality. In order to provide one of the bases for designing nutrition education, two nutrition knowledge-attitudes-practices surveys of adults aged 18–55 were conducted in 1989 in an urban (N=1004) and a rural (N=506) area of Sichuan.
Nutrition knowledge levels were low in both sites, but lower in the rural site. Certain general nutrition concepts, such as the value of a varied diet, were reported correctly by over 50 per cent of the population in both areas. However, less than 10 per cent of the urban residents and only 3 per cent of the rural residents reported taking correct measures to prevent or delay cancer or heart disease.
Dietary practices, elicited by a food frequency questionnaire, revealed large differences in consumption habits in the two areas. More than half of the urban respondents reported eating rice, vegetable oil, green vegetables, lean meat, and wheat on a daily basis, and other vegetables, pickles, fruit, eggs, soybean products, and meat fat on at least a weekly basis. However, the rural respondents reported eating only rice, vegetable oil, green vegetables, and other vegetables on a daily basis, and no additional foods on a weekly basis.
Factors associated with nutrition knowledge and attitudes included the respondent's age, education, and sex in both sites; occupation in the urban site; and, in the rural site only, having a household member working outside the rural area, and increased frequency of meeting that person, having additional incomegenerating activity besides agricultural work, and having been to a nearby city.
The results of these surveys indicate that promotion of nutrition in China should involve extensive pretesting of all materials and methods, vigorous efforts to reach the rural households, especially the rural women, and attention to the relationship of diet and chronic disease.