Does nutrition knowledge training improve dietary diversity and nutrition intake? Insights from rural China

Abstract

Improving dietary diversity and nutrition intake among rural households is essential to promote sustainable rural development. In this study, we examine whether nutrition knowledge training increases rural households' dietary diversity, nutrition intake, and total calorie intake. We consider three macronutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) and three micronutrients (vitamin C, iron, and zinc) to capture nutrition intake. The doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment estimator is employed to estimate survey data of 765 rural households collected by the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. The results show that nutrition knowledge training enhances household dietary diversity, improves the intake of macronutrients in terms of proteins and fats and micronutrients in terms of zinc, and increases total calorie intake. In addition, the intake of nutrients and calories of males responds to nutrition knowledge training while that of females does not. The dietary diversity of females increases with nutrition knowledge training, whereas that of males is unaffected. {EconLit Citations: I12, I18, Q12, E24}.