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The underweight/overweight household: an exploration of household sociodemographic and dietary factors in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2006

Colleen Doak ,
Linda Adair ,
Margaret Bentley ,
Zhai Fengying  and
Barry Popkin
Colleen Doak
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 8120 University Square, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516-3997, USA
Linda Adair
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 8120 University Square, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516-3997, USA
Margaret Bentley
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 8120 University Square, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516-3997, USA
Zhai Fengying
Affiliation:
Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Beijing, People's Republic of China
Barry Popkin*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 8120 University Square, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516-3997, USA
*
Corresponding author: Email popkin@unc.edu
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Abstract

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Objective:

The goal of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that the nutrition transition is related to households having an underweight and an overweight member simultaneously (under/over households and under/over pairs).

Design:

The 1993 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) was used to test the association between being an under/over household and household characteristics related to the nutrition transition. Sociodemographic and diet patterns were tested for the main age combination of the under/over pairs.

Setting:

In China, 8.1% of all households were found to have underweight and overweight members within the same household.

Subjects:

Results are from the 1993 China Health and Nutrition Survey and are based on a sample of 13814 persons from 3340 households.

Results:

The under/over household was more urban, had a higher income and was more likely to have assets such as a television, a motor vehicle and a washing machine, even after controlling for sociodemographic confounders. The under/over household had a diet that was higher in fat and protein compared with the underweight and normal weight households. There were no significant differences between the under/over and overweight households, with many of the associations near unity. Comparisions of the under/over subgroups by age of the under/over pairs showed some differences by income and occupation, but not for diet.

Conclusions:

It is imperative, as more individuals become exposed to the diet and lifestyle patterns of the nutrition transition, to find effective public health programmes that can simultaneously promote a healthy lifestyle, improve diet quality and address both undernutrition and chronic disease.

Keywords

ChinaDietHousehold food distributionunder/overUnderweightOverweight
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 5 , Issue 1a , February 2002 , pp. 215 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2002

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