Dietary knowledge, preferred diet, and cooking patterns: evidence from eastern China

The understanding of relationship between dietary knowledge and dietary behavior starts with defining specific food choice patterns. In this study, we interviewed 4710 residents in eastern China about their dietary knowledge, preferred diet, and cooking methods. We calculated dietary knowledge scores as the percentage of correct answers to each item in the dietary knowledge and applied factor analysis to derive the major dietary and cooking patterns. We then used multivariate linear regression to examine the socio-economic variables and dietary knowledge score associated with the preferred diets and cooking patterns. We showed that dietary knowledge scores were closely and positively correlated with Fruits-vegetables-dairy products, Meat dietary patterns, and Bland cooking patterns, and negatively correlated with Processed food dietary patterns and High-temperature cooking patterns. Therefore, promoting and propagating dietary knowledge is conducive to healthy dietary behavior. Future studies should be conducted on a broader scale to further examine the effects of geographic and cultural differences.