BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES：More than 30 years of socioeconomic development in China has improved living conditions which contributed to a steep decline in malnutrition prevalence of children under 5 years. To elucidate the role of socioeconomic development in improving nutritional status and to identify appropriate policy priorities for intervention in nutrition improvement for younger children.
Methods and study design: We collected data on socioeconomic development, education, cultural and recreational services, food consumption, average family size and malnutrition prevalence from national surveys.
Results: From 1990 to 2010, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita increased from 1644 Chinese Yuan (CNY) to 30,015 CNY; average disposable income and food expenditure per capita significantly increased in urban and rural areas; per capita consumption for education increased from 112 CNY to 1628 CNY and from 15.3 CNY to 367 CNY for other cultural services; illiteracy rate decreased from 15.9% to 4.1%; average family size from 3.97 to 3.10; and prevalence of stunting and underweight decreased from 33.1% to 9.9% and 13.7% to 3.6%, respectively. However, anaemia prevalence did not obviously decline between 1992 and 2000. After adjusting confounding effects of variables, negative relationships were observed between GDP per capita, average family size and stunting or underweight prevalence. However, no association was observed between illiteracy rate and prevalence of stunting and underweight, and there was no correlation between GDP per capita, illiteracy rate, average family size and anaemia prevalence.
Conclusions: Our results indicated that economic development cannot solve all nutritional problems and comprehensive national developmental strategies should be considered to combat malnutrition.
背景与目的：超过30年的中国社会经济持续发展明显改善了人们的生存环境 ，显著降低了5岁以下儿童营养不良率。本研究的目的是为了阐明社会经济发 展在改善营养不良中的作用以及确定幼儿营养改善干预中优先考虑的政策。 方法与研究设计：我们收集了全国调查的社会经济发展、教育、文化和娱乐 设施、食物消费、平均家庭人口以及营养不良率的数据。结果：从1990到 2010年，人均国民生产总值（GDP）从1644元增加到30015元；城乡人均可支 配收入和食品消费均显著增加，人均教育消费支出从112元增加到1628元，用 于其它文化消费支出从15.3元增加到367元；文盲率由15.9%降低到4.1%；平均 家庭人口由3.97降低到3.10；生长迟缓和低体重患病率分别从33.1%和13.7% 下 降到9.9%和3.6%。然而，贫血的患病率从1992年到2000年期间没有明显下降 。调整了混杂因素后，人均GDP、平均家庭人口与生长迟缓和低体重率呈显著 负相关。然而，文盲率与生长迟缓和低体重率间没有相关性，并且人均GDP、 文盲率和平均家庭人口与贫血率间也没有相关性。结论：我们的研究结果表 明，社会经济发展并不能完全解决儿童的营养问题，应考虑全面的国家发展战 略以解决营养不良问题。.