Nutrient intake of adult women in Jilin province, China, with special reference to urban-rural differences in nutrition in the Chinese continent

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to investigate possible urban -rural differences in food intakes in Jilin province and in continental Chi na as a whole, and to examine possible implications for nutritional status of urban and rural populations. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Communities. Subjects: In total, 499 adult women in six urban sites and four rural sites , 10 sites in total, including two sites in Jilin province. Methods: A pair of surveys were conducted in September, 1999, in the provin cial capital of Changchun and a farming village in Dehui county, both in Ji lin province, in northeast China. Each of 50 adult women per survey site pr ovided a 24 h duplicate food sample and a blood sample, and had an intervie w on health history including anthropometry and blood pressure measurement. Nutrient intakes were estimated from the food duplicates, using national f ood composition tables. Results from the two sites were supplemented with d ata from eight sites where surveys had been conducted following the same pr otocol, and the pooled material were subjected to analyses for possible urb an-rural differences. Results: The Jilin participants consumed daily, on average, about 1600 kcal energy, 44 g protein, and 60 g lipid with a lipid energy ratio (ie the rat io of lipid over total nutrients in terms of energy) of 33%. When nutrient intakes were compared between the urban (ie Changchun) and rural (Dehui) gr oups, urban women consumed mon energy, protein (especially animal protein) and lipid than rural women. Similar examination of data from six urban and four rural sites, including the present two, showed that adult women in urb an areas eat more animal protein and animal fat than their counterparts in villages, and suggested that the observation on urban-rural difference in J ilin province can be extrapolated to a nationwide scale. Conclusions: Urban-rural differences in nutrient intakes still persist in 1 999 not only in Jilin but in other provinces, typically in the terms of int akes of animal-based foods.