Urban-Rural Comparison of Nutrient Intake by Adult Women in Shandong Province, China

Abstract

In 1996, 24-hour food duplicate samples were collected from two groups of 50 nonsmoking women each; one group was in Jinan, the capital city for of Shandong Province in China, and the other in a farming village in Zhangqiu area some 30 km away from the city. They had also physical examinations including hematology and serum biochemistry tests. Nutritional analysis of the duplicate samples were conducted utilizing standard food composition tables for Chinese populations. The urban-rural comparison between the two groups showed that women in Zhangqiu took significantly less lipid (54 g/day) and more carbohydrate (335 g/day) than Jinan counterparts (76 g lipid and 254 g carbohydrate/day), although there was no significant difference in total energy and protein intake (1968 kcal/day in Jinan vs. 2071 kcal/day in Zhangqiu, and 67 g protein/day in Jinan vs. 61 g/day in Zhangqiu). The intakes of the three major nutrients were sufficient in majorities of members in both groups. Iron intake was also sufficient (22 and 25 mg/day in Jinan and Zhangqiu, respectively), but intake of calcium was insufficient in more than a half of the subjects in both groups. Zhangqiu women heavily depended on plant-based foods both for protein and lipid, whereas the dependency was less remarkable among Jinan women.