Liang Weifeng, Xing Yuan, Pang Miaomiao, Wang Duolao, Yan Hong
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 46, No.76 West Yanta Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, People's Republic of China.
Xi'an Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710054, People's Republic of China.
BMC Pediatr. 2018 Apr 10;18(1):132. doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-1084-0.
Rural infant growth failure has been highlighted as a priority for action in China's national nutrition and child development policies. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effect of community-based intervention project on child feeding, child health care and child growth.
From 2001 to 2005, UNICEF and China's Ministry of Health worked together to develop holistic strategies for child health care. All the interventions were implemented through the three-tier (county-township-village) rural health care network.In this study, 34 counties were included in both surveys in 2001 and 2005. Among these 34 counties, nine were subjected to the intervention and 25 counties were used as controls. In nine intervention counties, leaflets containing information of supplemental feeding of infants and young children were printed and distributed to women during hospital delivery or visit to newborn by village doctors. Two cross-sectional surveys were both conducted from July to early September in 2001 and 2005. We calculated Z-scores of height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ) and weight-for-height (WHZ), with the new WHO growth standard. HAZ < - 2 was defined as stunting, WAZ < - 2 was defined as underweight, and WHZ < - 2 was defined as wasting.
Following the four-year study period, the parents in the intervention group showed significantly better infant and young child feeding practices and behaviors of child care than did their control group counterparts. In addition, all three anthropometric indicators in 2005 in the intervention group were better than in the control, with stunting 4.9% lower (p < 0.001), underweight 2.2% lower (p < 0.001), and wasting 1.0% lower (p < 0.05).
We concluded that the health care education intervention embed in government had the potential to be successfully promoted in rural western China.
农村婴幼儿生长发育迟缓问题已在中国国家营养与儿童发展政策中被列为优先行动事项。本文旨在评估社区干预项目对儿童喂养、儿童保健及儿童生长发育的影响。
2001年至2005年期间，联合国儿童基金会与中国卫生部共同制定了儿童保健综合策略。所有干预措施均通过县-乡-村三级农村医疗保健网络实施。在本研究中，2001年和2005年的两次调查均涵盖了34个县。在这34个县中，9个县接受了干预，25个县作为对照。在9个干预县，印制了包含婴幼儿辅食喂养信息的宣传册，并由乡村医生在产妇住院分娩或访视新生儿时发放给产妇。2001年和2005年的两次横断面调查均于7月至9月初进行。我们采用世界卫生组织新的生长标准计算年龄别身高（HAZ）、年龄别体重（WAZ）和身高别体重（WHZ）的Z评分。HAZ < -2被定义为发育迟缓，WAZ < -2被定义为体重不足，WHZ < -2被定义为消瘦。
经过四年的研究期，干预组的父母在婴幼儿喂养实践和儿童保健行为方面明显优于对照组的父母。此外，2005年干预组的所有三项人体测量指标均优于对照组，发育迟缓率低4.9%（p < 0.001），体重不足率低2.2%（p < 0.001），消瘦率低1.0%（p < 0.05）。
我们得出结论，政府开展的保健教育干预措施有潜力在中国西部农村地区成功推广。
