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Updated: Jul 3, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
[Study on malnutrition status and changing trend of children under 5 years old in China]
Aidong Liu1, Liyun Zhao, Dongmei Yu
1Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Bejing 100050, China.
Insights
Child malnutrition in China has decreased, with significant improvements in urban areas. However, rural and western regions require focused nutritional interventions for children under five.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health Surveillance
- Child Development
Context:
- China faces persistent challenges in child malnutrition, particularly in rural and western regions.
- Understanding malnutrition trends is crucial for effective public health policy.
- Previous data from the Chinese Nutrition and Health Survey (CNHS) in 2002 provides a baseline for comparison.
Purpose:
- To analyze the current malnutrition status and trends among children under five in China.
- To identify disparities in malnutrition prevalence across different regions (east, middle, west) and settings (urban, rural).
- To inform the development of targeted nutrition policies for children.
Summary:
- A 2006 survey of 17,607 children under five revealed stunting at 9.9%, underweight at 5.9%, and wasting at 2.2%.
- Malnutrition prevalence was significantly higher in rural areas and western/middle regions compared to urban and eastern areas, respectively.
- Between 2002 and 2006, stunting and underweight prevalence decreased by 30.8% and 24.4%, with faster declines observed in urban areas.
Impact:
- The findings highlight the need for continued and intensified nutritional interventions, especially in underserved rural and western China.
- Demonstrates a positive trend in reducing child malnutrition but underscores persistent regional inequalities.
- Provides essential data for policymakers to refine and implement evidence-based child nutrition strategies.
Objective:
To analyze the malnutrition status and change trend of the children under the age of 5 years in China, and to afford the reference information for the establishment of children nutrition related policies.
Methods:
According to the classification of east, middle and west areas in China, as well as urban and rural, the multi-stage cluster probability sampling was used to select randomly total 17607 children under the age of 5 years, whose weight and height were measured by standard method.
Results:
In Chinese children under the age of 5 years, the stunting prevalence of Chinese children under 5 years was 9.9%, the underweight prevalence was 5.9% and the wasting prevalence was 2.2%. There were significant differences of the malnutrition prevalence between the urban areas and rural areas (P < 0.05). The prevalence of stunting of rural children was 5.3 times higher than that of urban as well as the prevalence of underweight in rural was 4.6 times higher than that in urban. In the same way, the prevalence of children malnutrition in middle and west areas was significantly higher than that of the prevalence in east area (P < 0.05). In comparison with the data of Chinese Nutrition and Health Survey (CNHS) in 2002, the prevalence of children stunting and underweight decreased by 30.8% and 24.4% respectively in 2006.
Conclusion:
In recent years, the malnutrition prevalence of Chinese children under the age of 5 years declined yearly and the decreases of prevalence of children malnutrition in urban areas was more faster than that in rural areas. It showed that the nutrition status of the children in west areas needs more improvement and at the same time, the status of children nutrition of west area also requires more concerns.
