With increasing prevalence of early-onset dietary-related diseases in Chinese young people, understanding their motives for food choice and the associated factors is particularly important for further behavioral interventions and food policy decisions. In our study, the food choice questionnaire was adopted, to measure Chinese young people's motives for food choice at an administrative division level in mainland China, and to understand physiological and socio-economic effects on the motives. Compared to ethical concern which was rated least important, sensory appeal, convenience and health were three most important motives ranked by people from Southwest, Southcentral, East, Northeast and North regions, while people from Northwest ranked familiarity as one of their most important motives. Canonical discriminant analysis indicated clear similarities and differences for each region of residence. Analysis of variance showed socio-economic factors played independent roles in food choice motives. However, physiological factors, including body mass index, waist-hip ratio, self and caregivers'health conditions didn't show any independent effects or interactions with socio-economic factors. Cluster analysis indicated that Chinese young people from six experimental regions were mainly grouped in five different motive-oriented clusters. Nearly 40 percent of young people were basically health-oriented food consumers. Together, it would be possible to alter motives for food choice towards health by changing some socio-economic factors, like level of education, monthly expenses. These data are important for further studies on health conditions and eating behaviors of Chinese young people distributed in different areas.%随着在中国年轻群体中早发性饮食相关疾病发病率的增加,探究并理解该群体的食物选择动机及其相关因素对于后续的饮食行为干预和食品政策决策尤为重要.该文在中国大陆的不同行政区内采用食物选择问卷调查中国年轻群体的食物选择动机,同时探究了生理状况和社会经济因素对于该动机的影响.结果表明:与评分最低的伦理考虑动机相比,来自西南、中南、东部、东北部和华北地区的人群均认为感官享受、便利性和健康是3项最重要的食物选择动机;然而,西北地区的人群认为熟悉程度是食物选择的主要动机.典型判别分析清晰地表明了不同地区人群食物选择动机的相似性和差异性.方差分析表明:社会经济因素可以独立地影响食物选择动机;然而,生理因素,包括体质量指数、腰臀比、自身和看护者的健康状况没有显示出独立的或者与社会经济因素交互作用的影响.聚类分析表明:来自6个行政区的中国年轻群体可以主要分为5个不同的动机导向的群体;其中,约40%的年轻群体基本上是以健康动机为导向的食物消费者.因此,通过改变一些社会经济因素,如教育水平和消费水平,从而使消费者转向以健康为食物选择动机是可行的.这些结果对于后续关于分布在不同地区中国年轻群体的健康状况和饮食行为研究具有重要意义.
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