Table 1.

Descriptive statistics.

Variable	All 15,719b		Urban 3724b	Rural 11,995b	pa
	Mean	Std. Dev.	Mean	Mean
Health and nutritional status
Height-for-age z-score	−0.79	1.37	−0.33	−0.93	<0.001
Weight-for-age z-score	−0.26	1.21	0.07	−0.36	<0.001
Stunted	0.17	0.38	0.09	0.19	<0.001
Underweight	0.03	0.17	0.01	0.03	<0.001
Child daily food consumption
Cereals (g)	1808.05	840.81	1508.06	1917.25	<0.001
Meat and Poultry (g)	385.54	305.80	432.43	367.36	<0.001
Eggs (g)	146.01	115.68	151.23	144.78	0.027
Preventive health care use	0.05	0.21	0.07	0.04	<0.001
Control variables
Health insurance	0.19	0.39	0.24	0.18	<0.001
Child age					0.005
0–5	0.17	0.38	0.16	0.18
6–11	0.42	0.49	0.42	0.43
12–17	0.40	0.49	0.42	0.40
Girl	0.47	0.50	0.47	0.47	0.503
Han	0.84	0.36	0.90	0.83	<0.001
Student	0.67	0.47	0.72	0.66	<0.001
Household income per capita (1000RMB in 2006 value)	4.05	4.64	3.87	4.62	<0.001
Household head is male	0.82	0.38	0.76	0.85	<0.001
Household size	4.53	1.31	4.11	4.66	<0.001
Mother’s age	37.28	6.33	37.69	37.16	<0.001
Mother’s height	155.44	5.88	156.99	154.97	<0.001
Mother’s BMI	22.39	3.40	22.72	22.30	<0.001
Mother’s education					<0.001
<primary school	0.29	0.45	0.12	0.34
Primary school	0.23	0.42	0.15	0.26
Lower middle school	0.31	0.46	0.35	0.30
Upper middle school	0.15	0.35	0.32	0.10
College	0.02	0.13	0.06	0.00
Mother employed	0.85	0.35	0.79	0.88	<0.001
Mother smokes	0.02	0.14	0.01	0.02	<0.001
Mother drinks	0.11	0.31	0.12	0.11	0.016
Presence of mother	0.89	0.31	0.87	0.91	<0.001
Father’s age	38.92	6.81	39.80	38.67	<0.001
Father’s height	165.94	6.44	167.71	165.41	<0.001
Father’s BMI	22.33	3.09	23.25	22.04	<0.001
Father’s education					<0.001
<primary school	0.11	0.32	0.06	0.13
Primary school	0.24	0.43	0.12	0.27
Lower middle school	0.41	0.49	0.35	0.43
Upper middle school	0.21	0.41	0.35	0.17
College	0.03	0.17	0.11	0.01
Father employed	0.93	0.26	0.91	0.94	<0.001
Father smokes	0.68	0.47	0.65	0.68	0.002
Father drinks	0.63	0.48	0.66	0.62	<0.001
Presence of father	0.87	0.34	0.84	0.89	<0.001
Province					<0.001
Liaoning	0.08	0.28	0.09	0.07
Heilongjiang	0.06	0.24	0.06	0.06
Jiangsu	0.09	0.29	0.10	0.09
Shandong	0.09	0.29	0.11	0.08
Henan	0.12	0.32	0.13	0.11
Hubei	0.13	0.34	0.11	0.14
Hunan	0.12	0.33	0.14	0.12
Guangxi	0.14	0.35	0.13	0.15
Guizhou	0.16	0.37	0.15	0.17
Wave					0.079
1989	0.04	0.19	0.04	0.05
1991	0.21	0.41	0.21	0.21
1993	0.21	0.41	0.20	0.21
1997	0.18	0.38	0.18	0.18
2000	0.16	0.37	0.16	0.16
2004	0.10	0.30	0.10	0.10
2006	0.11	0.31	0.11	0.11

Source: Authors’ calculations from the China and Health Nutrition Survey data 1989–2006.

^aχ² test for category variables and t-test for continuous variables.

^bSample size.