Trend in the nutritional status of children aged 2-7 years in Luoding city, China: A panel study from 2004 to 2013

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 3;13(10):e0205163. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205163. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

To examine trends in the prevalence of wasting, stunting, overweight, and obesity among children in Luoding, a lower-middle-income city in southern China, we collected height, weight and other information on 65,908 pre-school children aged 2 to 7 years from 23 kindergartens, in which health examinations were conducted annually between 2004 and 2013. We used the growth standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) to calculate Z-scores for height and body mass index (BMI), and used the cut-offs recommended by WHO to define wasting, stunting, overweight, and obesity for each child. From 2004 to 2013, the prevalence of overweight increased from 3.70% to 7.27% and of obesity increased from 1.04% to 2.08%. Meanwhile, the prevalence of wasting decreased from 0.91% to 0.72% and of stunting decreased from 9.29% to 5.22%. These trends suggest there was still a double burden of nutritional status there. The nutritional interventions focusing on pre-school children should be comprehensively elaborated in lower-middle-income areas such as Luoding.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • China / epidemiology
  • Cities
  • Cost of Illness
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Nutrition Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Nutritional Status*
  • Prevalence
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Time Factors

Grants and funding

Data analyses of the present study were supported by a grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81573170) to H-JW. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.