Duration of breastfeeding and its relevant influencing factors on under 2-years-old in rural areas of 10 provinces in China / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To understand the current status and relevant factors influencing the duration of breastfeeding in rural areas in China.Methods Children under two years old were selected as subjects from the study on "Physical growth among the under 7-years-old children from the rural areas of ten provinces in China in 2006".Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the survival curves and Cox multivariate stepwise regression was used to identify the relevant factors on the duration of breastfeeding.Results Median of the duration for breastfeeding was 12 months in rural areas of 10 provinces in China.Results of this study suggested that factors as sex,birth order,areas of residency,nationality,initiation of formula,parents' education levels,maternal services and famliy income were correlated with the duration of breastfeeding.Conclusion Duration of breastfeeding among rural children under 2-years of age was short in the 10 provinces of China.Factors as level of education,residential areas and family income of the parents as well as sex of the chilaren were correlated with the duration of breastfeeding.Intervention program should be implemented to improve the current status on breastfeeding.

Influencing factors on underweight and stunting among children aged 0-3 years in rural areas from ten provinces in China / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To analysis the influencing factors on underweight and stunting among children aged 0-3 years in rural areas from ten provinces in China.Methods Children under study were identified by multi-stage stratified cluster from rural areas of ten provinces in China.The ascertainment methods mainly included questionnaire and anthropometric measurements.Results There were 58 926 children under investigation,with 50.91％ were boys.The overall rates on underweight and stunting were 5.05％ and 10.49％ respectively.The rate in the 6 month-olds (1.97％,3.79％ ) was the lowest,while the highest were in the 24 month-olds (7.80％) and the 36 month-olds (16.83％).Age,sex,birth weight,gestational weeks as well as maternal education and fathers' schooling were factors significantly related to childhood underweight and stunting (P＜0.0001).Conclusion The status of underweight and stunting among children aged 0-3 years in rural areas was impressive,with birth weight was the key factor influencing the growth of children.Perinatal health care should be improved to promote the growth of children.