Status and variation trend of nut intake among Chinese residents,2010-2012

Objective To analyze the status and variation trend of nut intake among Chinese residents.Methods Multi-stage cluster random sampling was used to collect data about nut intake among residents in 150 surveillance sites of China National Nutrition and Health Survey in 31 provinces of China from 2010 to 2012.Food frequency questionnaire and 24-hour recall for three consecutive days were used to collect information on nut consumption of the participants.Standardization was performed based on the Chinese population data published by National Statistics Bureau in 2009.The nut consumption frequency and intake were calculated after weight adjustment with complex sampling.Results The proportion of residents reporting the frequency of 4 or more times per week for nut consumption were 10.4% in the children and 8.8% in the adults and the estimated daily nut intake was 3.8 grams for all the residents.The nut consumption frequency and intake showed a decreasing trend for the residents with different residential regions in an order of big city,small or medium-sized city,common rural area,and poverty rural area.The nut intake was increased gradually in the residents from 1982 to 2012.Although the total nut consumption in 2002 and 2012 was similar for all residents,but nut consumption was decreased slightly for both the residents in urban and rural areas during the period.Conclusion The consumption frequency and intake of nut among Chinese residents are still at a low level and exist regional differences.Some measures should be taken to guide reasonable nut consumption behavior among Chinese residents.