Abstract
The intake of food and nutrients differs between urban and rural areas in China. To develop a practical semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to cover both the urban and rural areas, we conducted diet surveys and compared food and nutrient intake between the two areas. We recruited 198 urban and 214 rural healthy inhabitants aged 35-55 years, and performed diet surveys, using a 3-day weighed dietary record approach. The intake of 29 nutrients was calculated according to actual consumption of foods, with Standard Food Composition Tables for China and Japan. Then, contribution analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed to select food items covering up to a 90% contribution and a 0.90 R2 of coefficient of determination, respectively. Consumption of energy and carbohydrates was greater in the rural area, but mean protein intake was higher in the urban case. Values for total fat were greater for rural than for urban males, with animal fat as the major contributor. We finally selected 117 and 76 food items for the urban and rural semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires, respectively, covering 18 and 27 nutrients constituting up to 90% of the nutrient intake. Further validity and reproducibility tests are now needed to assess their appropriateness for usage.
Highlights
The intake of food and nutrients differs between urban and rural areas in China
Diet is one of the major environmental factors related to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, and cancer,1-3and geographical variation in food and nutrient intake plays an important role in determining incidences of these diseases
Energy and carbohydrate intake was greater in the rural area, but mean amounts of protein consumed were higher in the urban area
Summary
The intake of food and nutrients differs between urban and rural areas in China. To develop a practical semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to cover both the urban and rural areas, we conducted diet surveys and compared food and nutrient intake between the two areas. Contribution analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed to select food items covering up to a 90%. We selected 117 and 76 food items for the urban and rural semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires, respectively, covering 18 and 27 nutrients constituting up to 90% of the nutrient intake. Diet is one of the major environmental factors related to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, and cancer,1-3and geographical variation in food and nutrient intake plays an important role in determining incidences of these diseases. There are five main methods employed to assess food and nutrient intake: (1) food record; (2) 24-hour dietary recall; (3) food frequency; (4) brief dietary assessment, using a short questionnaire on food frequency or dietary habits; and (5)
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