Objective To analyze the status of policy tools for health management of children aged 0 – 6 in Shanghai city, and to provide reference for improving the policy system of children's health management in Shanghai city.

Methods We retrieved 36 official policy documents on child health management published on the websites of Shanghai Municipal Government, Shanghai People's Congress, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, and other administrative agencies from 2009 to 2023. Based on the classification of policy instruments into mandatory/optional/mixed categories and combined with the field of child health management, we formed a two-dimensional analysis framework. Content analysis was used to extract and encode policy texts, and composition ratios were used to describe the distribution of different policy instruments for different objects.

Results Of the 36 documents retrieved, the most frequently mentioned topic was the prevention and treatment of childhood diseases (32 documents), followed by guidance on child nutrition (26 documents), and the least frequently mentioned topic was the prevention of childhood injuries (18 documents). Regarding the dimension of the policy category, the most used policy terms were the mandatory type (139 terms, 80.8%), followed by the mixed type (27 terms, 15.7%), and the least used was the optional type (6 terms, 3.5%). For the health dimension, the most common policy terms were those related to the prevention and treatment of childhood diseases (78 terms, 45.3%), followed by those related to child nutrition (53 terms, 30.8%), and the least common was that related to the prevention of child injuries (41 terms, 23.8%).

Conclusion The tilt of Shanghai's child health management policy is uneven, and the field of child injury prevention is relatively weak.