Abstract
Objective: To increase understanding about current dietary patterns and short-term relationships between economic change and adolescent nutrition in a lower-income country, using the 1991 and 1993 China Health and Nutrition Survey data.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Eight provinces in China that vary substantially in geography, economic development, public resources, and health indicators.
Subjects: 2236 and 2018 adolescents aged 10–18 years who completed three 24-hour recalls in the 1991 and 1993 survey, respectively.
Results: Chinese adolescents experienced an improvement of diet and nutritional status. The prevalence of stunting declined from 23% in 1991 to 19% in 1993. Under-nutrition was a problem of concern although the prevalence (12–13%) was relatively low. Overweight was emerging as a problem associated with young, high-income and urban adolescents, but the prevalence (4%) was quite low compared with developed countries. Chinese adolescents’ energy and protein intakes were adequate compared with the American RDA. About 27% of the participants derived more than 30% of their dietary energy from fat and 16% of them derived over 10% of energy from saturated fat by 1993.
Conclusion: Chinese adolescents have experienced an improvement in diet and nutritional status, but under-nutrition is still an important nutrition problem, especially among young and poor groups. More attention should focus on the increase of dietary fat intake and obesity.
Source of support: Funding comes from the National Institutes of Health (R01 HD30880), the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, and the National Science Foundation (grant #37486).
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Y., Popkin, B. & Zhai, F. The nutritional status and dietary pattern of Chinese adolescents, 1991 and 1993. Eur J Clin Nutr 52, 908–916 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600664
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600664
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Maternal age at menarche and offspring body mass index in childhood
BMC Pediatrics (2019)
-
Correlation of body mass index levels with menarche in adolescent girls in Shaanxi, China: a cross sectional study
BMC Women's Health (2016)
-
Identification of dietary patterns by factor analysis and study of the relationship with nutritional status of rural adolescents using factor scores
Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (2015)
-
First growth curves based on the World Health Organization reference in a Nationally-Representative Sample of Pediatric Population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): the CASPIAN-III study
BMC Pediatrics (2012)
-
Nutritional status and risk factors of overweight and obesity for children aged 9–15 years in Chengdu, Southwest China
BMC Public Health (2012)