Effects of Socio-Economic Factors on Healthy Diets in the Healthy China 2030 Program: A Grey Relational Analysis of Eastern Provinces

Abstract

The Healthy China 2030 strategy explicitly calls for integrating health considerations into all policies and promotes a shift toward healthier diets across the entire Chinese population through cross-sectoral institutional collaboration. This paper uses Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to examine the correlation between per capita consumption of vegetables and edible fungi, which is used as an indicator of healthy living, in eastern China and several influencing factors: consumption tax policies, education levels, economic development, and income levels. The analysis reveals that the retail price index for beverages, tobacco, and alcohol, which reflects the impact of consumption tax policies, has the strongest correlation (r₁ = 0.8113). This suggests that price increases in tobacco and alcohol significantly influence healthier food consumption through a crowding-out effect. The second-highest correlation is with the number of students enrolled in regular higher education institutions (r₃ = 0.7930), indicating that educational attainment fosters healthier behavioural choices via knowledge diffusion and social network spillovers. In contrast, per capita regional GDP (r₄ = 0.5579) and per capita disposable income (r₂ = 0.5512) show weaker correlations. This may point to diminishing marginal utility and structural imbalances in healthy consumption within more economically developed areas. Overall, the study highlights the leverage of consumption tax instruments in advancing public health goals and proposes a three-pronged governance framework—tax system optimization, education empowerment, and policy coordination—as a theoretical foundation for the regional implementation of the Healthy China strategy.