The emerging short-form video platforms improve household dietary diversity of rural residents: Evidence from China

Abstract

Hidden hunger and malnutrition threaten rural households in developing countries. Therefore, an effective and low-cost strategy is urgently required to improve the dietary diversity of rural households. Short-form video platforms (SVPs) are emerging media that can deliver diet-related information, and their potential impact on the dietary diversity of rural households cannot be neglected. Based on primary data collected from rural households in China, this study employs the IV-Poisson model to explore whether SVPs improve the dietary diversity of rural households, uses the IV-Probit model to examine whether SVPs encourage rural residents to consume food groups that are not self-produced, and applies the endogenous-treatment Poisson regression (ETPR) model to identify the heterogeneous effects of SVP participation on the dietary diversity of rural households with different distances from the county center. The results reveal that household cooks’ participation in SVPs significantly increases the dietary diversity of rural households. Specifically, households in which cooks participate in SVPs have 29.5% higher household dietary diversity scores than those in which cooks do not. The results indicate that household cooks’ participation in SVPs encourages rural residents to consume food groups that are not self-produced, thus improving their dietary diversity. In addition, the results indicate that household cooks’ participation in SVPs has a greater positive effect on the dietary diversity of rural households closer to the county center compared to those farther from the center.