Table 1.
Characteristics of the studies included in the systematic review
| Characteristic | Study count |
|---|---|
| Region | |
| National and multiregional | 19 |
| Hong Kong SAR | 13 |
| Macao SAR | 1 |
| Taiwan | 4 |
| Single province in mainland China | 83 |
| Singapore | 7 |
| Chinese immigrants living in other countries | 3 |
| Study design | |
| Cohort | 43 |
| Cross-sectional | 76 |
| Case–control | 11 |
| Publication language | |
| English | 114 |
| Chinese | 16 |
| Dietary intake assessment method | |
| FFQ | 110 |
| 24-h recall * | 20 |
| Dietary pattern derivation method | |
| Factor analysis (principal component analysis) | 108 |
| Cluster analysis † | 14 |
| Reduced-rank regression | 7 |
| Structure equation | 1 |
| Dietary data collection period ‡ | |
| Before 2000 | 9 |
| 2001–2010 | 63 |
| After 2011 | 58 |
| Average dietary pattern identified | 3 |
| Health outcome included in meta-analysis § | |
| CVD | 6 |
| Cancer | 5 |
| Diabetes | 15 |
| Hypertension | 14 |
| General obesity | 9 |
| Abdominal obesity | 14 |
| Depressive symptoms | 5 |
| Cognitive impairment | 6 |
SAR, Special Administrative Region.
*
Four studies reported both FFQ and 24-h recall.
†
Ten studies used factor analysis and cluster analysis together.
‡
Time of completion for multi-wave cohort studies.
§
Some studies reported multiple health outcomes.