Few studies have examined the longitudinal association between urbanicity and dietary fat intake in Chinese adults. A population-based longitudinal observational study was carried out in Chinese adults aged 18-65 from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Three consecutive 24 h dietary recalls were used to assess dietary fat intake. Multilevel models were used to explore the relationship between urbanicity and dietary fat intake. People in the highest urbanicity quartile had the increments of 7.48 g/d (95% CI:5.42-9.58) and 8.92 g/d (95% CI: 7.03-10.80) in dietary fat intake, 2.86 (95% CI: 2.29-3.44) and 2.69 (95% CI: 2.13-3.25) in proportion of energy from total fat, and odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of excess dietary fat intake of 1.84 (95% CI: 1.65-2.05) and 2.01 (95% CI: 1.78-2.26) for men and women, respectively, compared to the lowest quartile after controlling for potential confounders. These results indicate that urbanicity was an important factor influencing dietary fat intake among Chinese adults. Aggressive nutritional education action coupled with governmental guidelines and programs tailored for the Chinese population are required to promote less dietary fat intake, especially in those adults living in less urbanized areas and whose dietary fat intake is ≥ 30% of their total energy intake per day.
Keywords: China; fat intake; multilevel model; urbanicity.