Investigation of residents’ cognition-attitude on health claims of food and medicine homology substances in five China provinces and municipalities

ObjectiveTo explore the current status of Chinese residents’ cognition-attitude towards three dimensions： traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） health preservation theory， health claims of diet therapy， food and medicine homology substances， and to provide evidence-based policy recommendations， to guide the regulation of health claims for food-medicine homologous substances， aligning with the principles of TCM for relevant departments in China .MethodsAccording to the official economic regions of China， as defined by the National Bureau of Statistics， the sampling frame was constructed. Five provinces and municipalities namely Beijing， Guangdong， Sichuan， Jiangxi and Heilongjiang were selected as survey regions. The basic information of residents was analyzed by frequency. The status quo of residents’ cognition-attitude was analyzed by description， and the differences of residents in different regions were analyzed by Pearson’s chi-squared test.ResultsA total of 1 183 valid questionnaires were collected. Residents had certain understandings on following the natural cycles of the four seasons， promoting health by regulating the fundamental substances （“qi”， blood， and body fluids）， “Zangfu” Organs， and meridian systems. Most residents （99.2%） believed that dietary care can achieve TCM health preservation， and 78.36% of the residents believed that the effects of TCM for health preservation were good or very good. The highly frequent phrases of health claims that the residents selected were “nourishing the liver”， “strengthening the spleen”， and “nourishing the stomach” in the organ-based health claims， “replenishing qi”， “replenishing blood”， and “strengthening the muscles and bones” in the health claims related to the circulation of “qi”， blood and body fluids through meridians， and “drying up the dampness”， “lowering the fire”， and “cooling the heat” in the health claims for resisting external pathogenic factors. 94.33% of residents supported labeling food with TCM health claims， and 88.16% of residents knew about food and medicine homology substances， 92.52% of the residents considered that edible dose of the food and medicine homology substances should be clearly defined.ConclusionThe building of the health claim corpus for food and medicine homology substances should conform to the characteristics of TCM health preservation in China， focusing on health claims that are highly demanded by the residents. The professional and standardized application of health claims for food and medicine homology substances should be promoted and facilitated in health and market management.