[Protocol and quality control for Chinese food and nutrition surveillance system in 1998 (1998 CFNSS)]

Establishment of Chinese Food and Nutrition Surveillance System is of great importance in providing information on food consumption behavior and nutrition status of the people which is essential for health, economic planning and agriculture development. Sampling of CFNSS is based on the 145 sites Disease Surveillance Point (DSP) System built by Ministry of Health, and in conjunction with the 600 sites Household Social Economic Survey System founded by State Statistics Bureau. According to indicator system developed by the Ministry of Health for stratification, strata of urban, general rural and less-developed rural were defined and 40 sites were randomly sampled as national sample. The CFNSS sample was the common sub-sample of DSP system and the SSB Household Survey System that makes sharing of information resources possible. The 40 sites are distributed in 26 Provinces/Municipalities/Autonomous Regions. All the sites information was collected on body weight and height of children under 6 years of age, and questionnaire covering the basic family information, feeding practice and disease, health conditions of the households were surveyed by interviews. Whole year food consumption data collected at the sampled households by SSB Urban Household Survey Team and Rural Household Survey Team in the previous year was provided. Comprehensive data analysis was done to formulate the information on the relationship of food, nutrition and health. The protocol, methodologies and principles for the survey are described. 5 sites of CFNSS were selected for quality evaluation on the anthropometric measurement and questionnaire interview. The body weight and length of 20 children of 3-5 years of age in each of 5 sites was measured again. The result showed that the completeness of questionnaires interview was 96%, the rate of logic error was zero. There was no significant difference between the results measured by supervisor and investigator and no significant error on repeated measurements. The reliability of data R = 0.95. The results showed that the data was accurate and reliable.