Analysis on nutritional status of children in poor counties of the northwest

  Objective   To find out the public nutritional status of children under 3 years old in northwest China, compare the difference between different year and evaluate the effect of the public nutritional intervention.

  Methods   Under design of cross-sectional study and randomly sampling a survey was conducted every year for three times, height and weight were used as measurement of nutrition condition of children.

  Results   The prevalences of stunting (Height for Age Z-score <-2), Underweight (Weight for Age Z-score <-2) and wasting (Weight for Height Z-score <-2) were 19.4%, 18.2%, 5.8% respectively in 1999 and 18.2%, 15.1%, 4.2% in 2001.Compared with reference distribution of NCHS/WHO, the distribution of HAZ and WAZ shifted left significantly, which indicated that the nutrition status of the entire children was poor and prevalence of malnutrition was higher in the area.

  Conclusion   The health education of nutrition should be intensified, woman's knowledge about health care and prevention should be improved and the common diseases for children should be controlled. In addition, it should be noticed that an intervention is required for the nutrition status of the entire children and it is an efficient way to pay much attention to those with severely nutritional deficiency.