The Impact of Population Aging on Food Consumption of Rural Households in China: Cross-Sectional Study Across the Ten Geographic Regions

Food and nutrition are the foundation for human survival. This study focuses on the strategic goals of a Healthy China and actively responding to population aging, empirically examining the impact effects and mechanisms of population aging on the food consumption quantity of rural residents in China. Based on a sample of 2846 rural households from 10 provinces in the China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), this study employs various methods such as Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), instrumental variable methods, and mediation effect models for empirical testing. The study found that population aging has a significant positive impact on the consumption of grains, vegetables, legumes, dairy products, and eggs among rural residents in China, while showing a significant negative impact on the consumption of beef/lamb and fruits. For every 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of individuals aged 60 and above in a household, the consumption of grains, vegetables, legumes, dairy products, and eggs increased by an average of 106.857 g/day, 57.900 g/day, 8.202 g/day, 9.226 g/day, and 7.116 g/day, respectively. The consumption of beef/lamb and fruits decreased by an average of 5.585 g/day and 36.316 g/day, respectively. Although population aging has led to a decrease in the consumption of certain food items among rural residents, the increase in grain consumption has resulted in an enhanced total energy intake per capita for households. Household income levels and the scale of land management play important mediating roles in the impact of population aging on the quantity of food consumed by rural residents. Therefore, corresponding countermeasures are proposed, aiming to promote the construction of a food consumption monitoring system in China, broaden income channels for rural residents, systematically carry out nutrition and health education, and improve the rural social security system in China, thereby optimizing the structure of food consumption.