Li Rong, Ye Linxiang, Han Jingwei
Institute of Food and Strategic Reverse, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, China.
School of Economics and Management, Huizhou University, Huizhou, China.
Front Nutr. 2025 Jun 2;12:1560455. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1560455. eCollection 2025.
Diet serves as the primary source of nutrition, and dietary quality determines individuals' nutritional status. Poor dietary quality may result in malnutrition such as undernutrition and overnutrition. This study examines the association between women's educational attainment and rural household dietary quality and the heterogeneity in this association when accounting for the employment status of male and female household heads. We use dietary intake data for 2,069 households from the first round of China Rural Revitalization Survey (2020) and conceptualize dietary quality using the Diet Balance Index (DBI). Multiple linear regression indicates that a one-standard-deviation increase in women's years of education reduces dietary imbalance by 3.65%, overconsumption by 6.51%, and underconsumption by 2.09%. Specifically, higher education attainment is associated with less inadequate consumption of milk and fish and more balanced meat intake in rural households. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of women's education on dietary quality is stronger when women engage in on-farm employment, while it is more pronounced in households where men are employed in off-farm work. The findings of this research provide theoretical support for improving the nutritional status of rural residents in China and other developing regions by allocating more educational resources and enhancing access to education for rural women.
饮食是营养的主要来源，饮食质量决定个体的营养状况。不良的饮食质量可能导致营养不良，如营养不足和营养过剩。本研究考察了女性受教育程度与农村家庭饮食质量之间的关联，以及在考虑家庭户主的就业状况时这种关联的异质性。我们使用了来自中国农村振兴调查（2020年）第一轮的2069户家庭的饮食摄入数据，并使用饮食平衡指数（DBI）来概念化饮食质量。多元线性回归表明，女性受教育年限每增加一个标准差，饮食不均衡减少3.65%，过度消费减少6.51%，消费不足减少2.09%。具体而言，农村家庭中，受教育程度较高与牛奶和鱼类摄入不足减少以及肉类摄入更均衡相关。异质性分析表明，当女性从事农业就业时，女性教育对饮食质量的积极影响更强，而在男性从事非农业工作的家庭中这种影响更为明显。本研究结果为通过分配更多教育资源和增加农村女性受教育机会来改善中国及其他发展中地区农村居民的营养状况提供了理论支持。
