The Current Status, Trend, and Influencing Factors to Malnutrition of Infants and Children in China

  • Zhai, Feng-Ying (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) ;
  • Wang, Hui-Jun (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) ;
  • Chang, Su-Ying (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) ;
  • Fu, Dawei (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) ;
  • Ge, Keyou (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention) ;
  • Popkin, Barry M. (Institute of Nutrition an Food Safety, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
  • Published : 2004.09.01

Abstract

Children are the most nutrition sensitive sub-group of a population. The nutritional status of children should be especially emphasized at all levels. This study was performed to investigate the current status, trend, and influencing factors to malnutrition of infants and children in China. The study was mainly based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey which is a longitudinal study conducted in 8 provinces and the data on growth of children under 7 years of age in 9 cities in China. The result of this study showed that one fifth of the children under 5 years of age are still suffering from stunted growth and one tenth suffering from underweight. The nutrition intervention on children under 2 years of age, especially on those under 18 months should be emphasized. Better supplementary food can improve the nutritional status to decrease the prevalence of stunted children. Therefore, the development of supplementary food should be the priority and should be emphasized with breastfeeding.

Keywords

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