Xiaoli Wang1, Bengt Höjer, Sufang Guo, Shusheng Luo, Wenyuan Zhou, Yan Wang. 1. Division of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present paper were to assess the nutritional status of children under 5 years old using the 2006 WHO Child Growth Standards ('the WHO standards') and to compare the results with those obtained using the National Center for Health Statistics/WHO international growth reference ('the NCHS reference'). DESIGN: This was a community-based cross-sectional survey. The WHO standards were used to calculate Z-scores of height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ) and BMI-for-age (BMIZ). SETTING: Fifty counties of thirteen mid-western provinces, China. SUBJECTS: A total 8041 children aged <5 years were measured during a 2-month period from August to October 2006. RESULTS: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 30.2 %, 10.2 % and 2.9 %, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and the possible risk of overweight were as high as 4.1 % and 16.8 %. Further analysis among the children with possible risk of overweight found that the percentage of stunting (HAZ < or-2) was 57.6 %, the percentage with -2 <or= HAZ <or= 2 was 41.0 % and the percentage with HAZ > 2 was only 1.4 %. The prevalence of stunting was 21.9 % and of underweight was 12.7 % by the NCHS reference. CONCLUSIONS: Stunting was the most serious problem that was impeding child growth and development. The high rate of 'overweight' was a false impression, the truth being 'stunting overweight', and the way to solve it should be to increase protein and other nutrients in the diet at an early age.
OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present paper were to assess the nutritional status of children under 5 years old using the 2006 WHO Child Growth Standards ('the WHO standards') and to compare the results with those obtained using the National Center for Health Statistics/WHO international growth reference ('the NCHS reference'). DESIGN: This was a community-based cross-sectional survey. The WHO standards were used to calculate Z-scores of height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ) and BMI-for-age (BMIZ). SETTING: Fifty counties of thirteen mid-western provinces, China. SUBJECTS: A total 8041 children aged <5 years were measured during a 2-month period from August to October 2006. RESULTS: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 30.2 %, 10.2 % and 2.9 %, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and the possible risk of overweight were as high as 4.1 % and 16.8 %. Further analysis among the children with possible risk of overweight found that the percentage of stunting (HAZ < or-2) was 57.6 %, the percentage with -2 <or= HAZ <or= 2 was 41.0 % and the percentage with HAZ > 2 was only 1.4 %. The prevalence of stunting was 21.9 % and of underweight was 12.7 % by the NCHS reference. CONCLUSIONS: Stunting was the most serious problem that was impeding child growth and development. The high rate of 'overweight' was a false impression, the truth being 'stunting overweight', and the way to solve it should be to increase protein and other nutrients in the diet at an early age.
Authors: D B Hipgrave; X Fu; H Zhou; Y Jin; X Wang; S Chang; R W Scherpbier; Y Wang; S Guo Journal: Eur J Clin Nutr Date: 2014-06-04 Impact factor: 4.016
Authors: Rajalakshmi Lakshman; Jing Zhang; Jianduan Zhang; Felix S Koch; Claude Marcus; Johnny Ludvigsson; Ken K Ong; Tanja Sobko Journal: J Epidemiol Community Health Date: 2013-02-28 Impact factor: 3.710