Quan Shiwen, Zhang Huiyun
Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China.
Faculty of Applied Economics, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China.
J Glob Health. 2025 Aug 29;15:04287. doi: 10.7189/jogh.15.04287.
Improving dietary health has become a key objective in public health policies worldwide. Concurrently, rapid technological advancements have profoundly altered food acquisition methods, with the widespread adoption of the internet shifting food commerce from offline to online platforms. This study aims to empirically examine the impact of e-commerce on residents' dietary health.
Utilising unbalanced panel data from 64 countries between 2008 and 2022, this study employs a two-way fixed-effects model to empirically analyse the effects of e-commerce on dietary health. Mediation analysis is conducted to examine the underlying mechanisms, specifically food availability and food imports. Heterogeneity analysis is conducted to investigate the heterogeneity of these effects with different economic development levels.
E-commerce positively promotes dietary health among residents. Regarding specific dimensions of dietary health, the promotion effects of e-commerce on the Healthy Food Diet Index (HFD) and the Balanced Index of Food Consumption Structure (f_coi) are stronger than on the Balanced Index of Nutritional Structure (n_coi). Mechanism tests indicate that food availability acts as a partial mediating factor in the relationship between e-commerce and dietary health, while food imports mediate the relationship between e-commerce and two dietary health dimensions (HFD and f_coi) with indirect effect of 5.0% and 7.3% respectively. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive impact of e-commerce on HFD and f_coi weakens progressively with rising levels of economic development.
It is recommended that efforts should be made to strengthen supporting infrastructure such as cold chain logistics to effectively promote the positive impact of e-commerce on dietary health, especially in low-income countries. Concurrently, vigilant monitoring is required to mitigate the exacerbating effects of food imports on dietary health. The higher marginal benefit of e-commerce development on dietary health in low-income countries effectively narrows the dietary health gap with developed nations, thereby advancing global health equity.
改善饮食健康已成为全球公共卫生政策的关键目标。与此同时，快速的技术进步深刻改变了食物获取方式，互联网的广泛应用使食品商业从线下平台转向了线上平台。本研究旨在实证考察电子商务对居民饮食健康的影响。
利用2008年至2022年64个国家的非平衡面板数据，本研究采用双向固定效应模型实证分析电子商务对饮食健康的影响。进行中介分析以检验潜在机制，特别是食物可得性和食物进口。进行异质性分析以研究不同经济发展水平下这些影响的异质性。
电子商务对居民饮食健康有积极促进作用。在饮食健康的具体维度方面，电子商务对健康食品饮食指数（HFD）和食物消费结构平衡指数（f_coi）的促进作用强于对营养结构平衡指数（n_coi）的促进作用。机制检验表明，食物可得性在电子商务与饮食健康的关系中起部分中介作用，而食物进口在电子商务与两个饮食健康维度（HFD和f_coi）的关系中起中介作用，间接效应分别为5.0%和7.3%。异质性分析表明，随着经济发展水平的提高，电子商务对HFD和f_coi的积极影响逐渐减弱。
建议应努力加强冷链物流等配套基础设施建设，以有效促进电子商务对饮食健康的积极影响，特别是在低收入国家。同时，需要进行警惕性监测，以减轻食物进口对饮食健康的加剧影响。电子商务发展在低收入国家对饮食健康的较高边际效益有效缩小了与发达国家在饮食健康方面的差距，从而推动全球健康公平。
