The China Health and Nutrition Survey

The China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), an ongoing international collaborative project between the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was designed to examine the effects of the health, nutrition, and family planning policies and programs implemented by national and local governments and to see how the social and economic transformation of Chinese society is affecting the health and nutritional status of its population. The impact on nutrition and health behaviors and outcomes is gauged by changes in community organizations and programs as well as by changes in sets of household and individual economic, demographic, and social factors.

The survey was conducted by an international team of researchers whose backgrounds include nutrition, public health, economics, sociology, Chinese studies, and demography. The survey took place over a 3-day period using a multistage, random cluster process to draw a sample of about 4400 households with a total of 19,000 individuals in nine provinces that vary substantially in geography, economic development, public resources, and health indicators. In addition, detailed community data were collected in surveys of food markets, health facilities, family planning officials, and other social services and community leaders.