The Impact of COVID‐19 on the Dietary Diversity of Children and Adolescents: Evidence from a Rural/Urban Panel Study

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Yi Cui,Wei Si,Qiran Zhao,Thomas Glauben,Xiaolong Feng
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12394

©2021 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China & World Economy / 53–72, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2021 53

*Yi Cui, PhD Candidate, College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, China. Email:

cuiyicau@163.com; Wei Si, Professor, College of Economics and Management, Academy of Global Food

Economics and Policy, China Agricultural University, China. Email: siwei@cau.edu.cn; Qiran Zhao, Associate

Professor, College of Economics and Management, Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy, China

Agricultural University, China. Email: zhaoqiran@cau.edu. cn; Thomas Glauben, Professor, Leibniz Institute

of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies, Germany. Email: glauben@iamo.de; Xiaolong Feng

(corresponding author), Lecturer, College of Economics and Management, Academy of Global Food Economics

and Policy, China Agricultural University, China. Email: xlfeng@cau.edu.cn. We gratefully acknowledge

the fi nancial support by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71973136 and 71603261) and

Research Innovation Fund for Graduate Students of China Agriculture University (No. 2021TC101).

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Dietary Diversity of

Children and Adolescents: Evidence from a

Rural/Urban Panel Study

Yi Cui, Wei Si, Qiran Zhao, Thomas Glauben, Xiaolong Feng*

Abstract

This paper offers the fi rst empirical evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on dietary

diversity among children and adolescents in urban and rural families by using panel

data collected in 2019 (before COVID-19) and 2020 (during COVID-19) in northern

China. Our study uses panel data from 2,201 primary school students and 1,341 junior

high-school students to apply the difference in differences (DID) method to estimate the

impact of COVID-19 on dietary diversity among students in urban and rural families.

We found that the dietary diversity score (DDS) of rural students decreased by 0.295

points (p < 0.01) compared with that of urban students during COVID-19. Specifi cally,

COVID-19 significantly reduced the frequency of rural students’ consumption of

vegetables by 1.8 percent, protein-rich foods such as soybean products and nuts by 6.0

percent, meats by 4.0 percent, aquatic products by 6.7 percent, and eggs by 5.3 percent,

compared with urban students. Further, COVID-19 had a signifi cant negative effect on

the dietary diversity of students from low- and middle-income groups, with the DDS

of the low-income group decreasing by 0.31 points (p < 0.01) and that of the middle-

income group by 0.12 points (p < 0.1).

Keywords: COVID-19, dietary diversity, urban and rural differences

JEL codes: I00, I14, J13, O18

I. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge challenge to the world, especially with regard to

food supplies and health systems (Bong et al., 2020; Mussell et al., 2020). According to

Yi Cui et al. / 53–72, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2021

©2021 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

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a World Health Organization report on COVID-19 (WHO, 2021), as of October 3, 2021,

COVID-19 had resulted in more than 23.5 million laboratory-confi rmed infections and

4.7 million deaths. China has significantly curbed the pandemic – largely due to the

government, which adopted a series of strict domestic quarantine policies to control

the spread of COVID-19 (Fang et al., 2020; Kong et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020a). These

policies included blockades, trade restrictions, closure of public spaces, and encouraging

people to stay at home. These policies also affected the food system by disrupting the

production, transportation, and sale of nutritious, fresh, and affordable foods (Fore et al.,

2020; Mussell et al., 2020). Some policies infl uenced social and physical activities, such

as limited social contact, increased physical distance, the cancellation or postponing

of large public events, and the closure of schools, cinemas, and museums (Chen et al.,

2020). The policies affected food supplies and aggravated the lack of food nutrition, the

lack of dietary diversity, and health risks.

People’s dietary behaviors have been transformed by COVID-19 (Zhang et al.,

2020). The pandemic has caused disruptions in the agri-food supply chain, which has

exacerbated diffi culties in bringing fresh food to the market (Mussell et al., 2020) owing

to the restrictions on transportation and the lack of a suffi cient labor force (Mussell et al.,

2020; Zhao et al., 2020), which has increased the difficulty experienced by people in

acquiring various types of food. Many countries, including China, reported fi nding traces

of the virus on packages of frozen food in the market (Fisher et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020b).

Markets removed such frozen foods and suspended imports of frozen seafood (Fisher et

al., 2020). Consequently, Chinese residents spontaneously reduced their intake of raw

and frozen food (Zhang et al., 2020), which impaired nutritious food accessibility. Strict

prevention measures, such as quarantine at home or closure of restaurants, also posed

a potential barrier to accessing a variety of foods (Zhao et al., 2020). Meanwhile, some

studies found that when a stressful situation arises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic,

people often experience emotional changes that may subsequently lead to modifi cation

of dietary behaviors such as seeking relief by eating sweet food, fried chicken, or

hamburgers (Cecchetto et al., 2021; Mason et al., 2021).

Furthermore, public health emergencies such as the outbreaks of Ebola (Ji et al.,

2017) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Lee et al., 2006) can cause public mental

health problems. Coronavirus disease 2019 has also led to global anxiety and depression

due to disrupted travel plans, social isolation, media information overload, and panic

buying of necessary goods (Ho et al., 2020). The anxiety associated with COVID-19

could cause public physical health problems through its impact on people’s dietary

behaviors and reduced physical activity (Leddy et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020).

The pandemic has affected people’s usual physical activity and sedentary behavior