Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dietary Consumption among Chinese Residents: Evidence from Provincial-Level Panel Data

Xiaodong Zheng, Yinglin Wang, Yue Zhang, Tinghe Deng and Yuanzheng Yang
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Xiaodong Zheng: School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Yinglin Wang: School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Yue Zhang: School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Tinghe Deng: Chinese Center for Health Education, Beijing 100011, China
Yuanzheng Yang: Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing 100732, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-16

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people’s daily lives, including their dietary behaviors. Using a panel data set of 31 provinces from 2015 to 2020, this study employed two-way fixed effects (FE) models to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on dietary consumption among Chinese residents. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic positively affected residents’ consumption of grain, eggs, dairy, and white meat (poultry and aquatic products), while it had a negative effect on individuals’ red meat consumption in both urban and rural areas. These results were robust to different measures of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the number of confirmed cases, suspect cases, and dead cases. Comparatively, the changes in food consumption induced by the COVID-19 pandemic were more prominent for Chinese residents who lived in rural areas than urban areas. In addition, compared to their counterparts, the dietary consequences of the pandemic were more pronounced for residents living in the eastern region and regions with a high old-age dependency ratio and low illiteracy rate. Furthermore, the estimation results of the quantile regression model for panel data suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic had relatively larger impacts on the dietary consumption of Chinese residents at lower quantiles of food consumption compared with those at higher quantiles. Overall, the results of this study suggested that Chinese residents had a healthier diet after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We discussed possible mechanisms, including health awareness, income, food supply and prices, and other behavioral changes during COVID-19 (e.g., physical activity and cooking). To further improve residents’ dietary behaviors and health, our study proposed relevant measures, such as increasing residents’ dietary knowledge, ensuring employment and income, and strengthening the food supply chain resilience during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; dietary consumption; nutritional health; health awareness; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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