de Onis Mercedes, Blössner Monika
Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
Int J Epidemiol. 2003 Aug;32(4):518-26. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyg099.
For decades nutritional surveys have been conducted using various definitions, indicators and reference populations to classify child malnutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition was initiated in 1986 with the objective to collect, standardize, and disseminate child anthropometric data using a standard format.
The database includes population-based surveys that fulfil a set of criteria. Data are checked for validity and consistency and raw data sets are analysed following a standard procedure to obtain comparable results. Prevalences of wasting, stunting, under- and overweight in preschool children are presented using z-scores based on the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)/WHO international reference population. New surveys are included on a continuous basis and updates are published bimonthly on the database's web site.
To date, the database contains child anthropometric information derived from 846 surveys. With 412 national surveys from 138 countries and 434 sub-national surveys from 155 countries, the database covers 99% and 64% of the under 5 year olds in developing and developed countries, respectively. This wealth of information enables international comparison of nutritional data, helps identifying populations in need, evaluating nutritional and other public health interventions, monitoring trends in child growth, and raising political awareness of nutritional problems.
The 15 years experience of the database can be regarded as a success story of international collaboration in standardizing child growth data. We recommend this model for monitoring other nutritional health conditions that as yet lack comparable data.
几十年来，人们一直在使用各种定义、指标和参考人群来开展营养调查，以对儿童营养不良进行分类。世界卫生组织（WHO）儿童生长与营养不良全球数据库于1986年启动，目的是使用标准格式收集、规范和传播儿童人体测量数据。
该数据库包括符合一组标准的基于人群的调查。对数据进行有效性和一致性检查，并按照标准程序分析原始数据集以获得可比结果。使用基于美国国家卫生统计中心（NCHS）/WHO国际参考人群的z分数，呈现学龄前儿童消瘦、发育迟缓、体重不足和超重的患病率。新的调查持续纳入，更新内容每两个月在数据库网站上发布。
迄今为止，该数据库包含来自846项调查的儿童人体测量信息。有来自138个国家的412项国家调查和来自155个国家的434项次国家级调查，该数据库分别覆盖了发展中国家和发达国家99%和64%的5岁以下儿童。这些丰富的信息使得能够对营养数据进行国际比较，有助于确定需要帮助的人群，评估营养和其他公共卫生干预措施，监测儿童生长趋势，并提高对营养问题的政治关注度。
该数据库15年的经验可被视为国际合作规范儿童生长数据方面的一个成功案例。我们建议采用这种模式来监测其他尚无可比数据的营养健康状况。
