Nutrition
Volume 21, Issue 9 , Pages 964-966, September 2005

Is the national nutrition survey in Japan representative of the entire Japanese population?

  • Kota Katanoda, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Division of Health Informatics and Education National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +81-3-3203-5722; fax:+81-3-3203-5605.
    • ,
  • Hiroshi Nitta, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tokyo, Japan
    • ,
  • Kunihiko Hayashi, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Gunma University School of Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
    • ,
  • Yasuhiro Matsumura, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Division of Health Informatics and Education National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan

Received 18 October 2004; accepted 15 February 2005. published online 25 July 2005.

Abstract 

Objective

We examined the representativeness of the sample used in the National Nutrition Survey in Japan (J-NNS).

Methods

The distribution of the J-NNS sample from 1995 to 2000 was compared with that of the national census with respect to gender, age group, place of residence, and number of household members.

Results

In the survey sample, as compared with the national census distributions, the proportion of females was 1% to 2% larger, the proportion of individuals who were 20 to 39 y of age was a few percentages smaller, and a slight bias toward rural areas was seen. Among individuals who were 20 to 59 y of age, the proportion of individuals who lived in single-person households was 50% to 66% of that found in the national census. Observed disparities between the sample and the population were minimal except in the case of the proportion of individuals who lived alone.

Conclusions

The sample used in the J-NNS is generally representative of the entire Japanese population with the exception of individuals in single-person households.

Keywords:  J-NNS , Nutrition surveys , Selection bias , Representativeness , Sample

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 This work was supported by a Health and Labour Sciences Research Grant for Research on Children and Families from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, Japan.

PII: S0899-9007(05)00160-7

doi:10.1016/j.nut.2005.02.004

Nutrition
Volume 21, Issue 9 , Pages 964-966, September 2005

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