Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Beijing in 2004 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the current prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents (2-18 years) in Beijing and its distribution by age, gender and urban-rural residence.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>As part of the Beijing Child and Adolescent Metabolic Syndrome Study, a stratified cluster representative sample of 23,422 children aged 0-18 years was selected. Anthropometric measures including weight and height were collected from 21,198 subjects aged 2-18 years from April to October in 2004. Overweight and obesity were defined according to body mass index [BMI, weight(kg)/height(m2)] cutpoints. For national and international comparisons, three sex-age-specific BMI criteria were used:1) The BMI cutoffs recommended by the Chinese Working Group on Obesity for Children (WGOC) aged 7-18 years; 2) The US 2000 CDC Growth Charts (CDC 2000) frac 34, the 85th and 95th percentiles; 3) The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) reference.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The overall combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 18.6% with obesity as 8.1% based on the CDC 2000 criteria, The figures were 17.4% and 5.1% based on the IOTF criteria. According to the WGOC criteria, the combined prevalence of obesity was 20.9% and 8.9% in children aged 7-18 years. The combined prevalence was higher in school-age children (6-18 years) than in preschool-age children (19.8% vs. 14.8%, based on the CDC 2000 criteria). Among school-age children, the prevalence was higher in boys than in girls (26.7% vs. 16.5%), in urban than in rural areas (27.0% vs. 15.9%). However, these differences were not observed in preschool-age children. It was estimated that approximately 450 000 children from 2 through 18 years of age,were overweight or obesity in Beijing.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Data from our study indicated that one fifth of the children and adolescents in Beijing were under overweight or obesity situation which was the highest in the nation. Obesity among children and adolescents in Beijing had already become a serious public health problem which deserved greater attention.</p>

A cross-sectional study on prevalance and risk factors of disabilities in aged 0-6 years children in Beijing, China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the epidemiological status of disabilities on vision impairment (VI), hearing loss (HL), mental retardation (MR), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and motor disorder (MD) in aged 0-6 years old children in Beijing.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 28 738 children under 7 years old were recruited from permanent residents of Beijing City by 2-phase cluster sampling. The screening procedure was 2-phase, and the diagnosis criteria were developed by the experts group.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The overall disability rate was 11.45 per thousand (95 % CI:10.22-12.68). The false negative rates in HL and ASD were 0.14 per thousand, 0.80 per thousand, respectively, with a adjusted overall rate of 12.19per thousand. The prevalence rates of different kind disabilities from high to low were MR 9.31per thousand, MD 2.12per thousand, ASD 1.53per thousand (0.73per thousand before adjusted), HL 1.04per thousand (0.91per thousand before adjusted) VI 0.73per thousand. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the possible non-biological risk factors for those disabilities were being male, living in city area, advancing age, mother with low education, mother engaged in labor work, and family with low income. It was primarily (49.62%) those prenatal factors other them the known suspected factors that causing disabilities.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Compared with data from a countrywide study in 1987, the overall disability rate had a mild decrease (16.36%) with the most (56.85%) appeared in HL. It is indispensable to establish a disabilities surveillance program for the early recognition and intervention of children with disabilities. It is also crucial to clarify a disability definition for children combined with their characteristics of growth and development. We strongly recommended in developing a new definition on children' disabilities and establishing new criteria according to the contents of developmental disabilities of Center for Disease Control, USA.</p>

Blood lead level and related risk factors among children aged 0-6 years in Beijing / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe blood lead level and related risk factors among children of 0 - 6-year old in Beijing.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Stratified-clustered-random sampling and simple random sampling were used. A total of 2 262 children of 0 - 6 years old were investigated from May to July 2001. They were permanent residents in Beijing. Blood lead level was tested by graphite atomizer absorption spectrophotometer. At the same time, related factors were investigated using a standardized questionnaire.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean lead level of children in Beijing was 96.8 micro g/L with 35.7% of those >/= 100 micro g/L, and 2.5% >/= 200 micro g/L. The proportion of lead poisoning was significantly higher in rural children (P < 0.01). The proportion of lead poisoning in 2-year-old group was higher than that in other age groups. The proportion of lead poisoning in boys was significantly higher than that in girls (P < 0.01). The following factors might serve as major risk factors related to child lead poisoning, such as, never or rarely drinking milk, living in nearby highways (less than 50 meters) or living in the first floor/bungalow, and so on.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The blood lead level of >/= 100 micro g/L among Beijing children appeared to be a big problem. Decision-makers should pay more attention to prevent blood lead level being high, and to cure these children who suffered in lead poisoning. Effective intervention measures on these target populations should be taken.</p>