Subnational disparity of anemia among Chinese Han students aged 7-14 years in 2014 / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To describe the subnational disparity of anemia among Chinese Han students aged 7-14 years, and to provide a reference for making intervention measures to improve anemia among Chinese children.@*Methods@#A total of 71 115 Chinese Han students aged 7-14 years were selected from the project ‘2014 Chinese National Survey on Students’ Constitution and Health'. Anemia and its severity were defined according to the diagnosis criteria of World Health Organization (WHO). The rank sum test was used to compare anemia distribution of different subgroups. Logistic regression models were established to analyze the influencing factors of anemia and moderate-to-severe anemia.@*Results@#In the 71 115 students with measured hemoglobin concentrations in the 2014 CNSSCH, the overall prevalence rate of anemia was 8.9%, with 5.8% to be mild anemia and 3.1% to be moderate-to-severe anemia. For boys aged 7-14 years, the hemoglobin concentration increased with age; Boys aged 7 years had the highest anemia prevalence (9.8%) and moderate-to-severe anemia prevalence(4.4%). For girls aged 7-12 years, the hemoglobin concentration increased with age, but the concentration decreased a little when girls reached 14 years of age; 14-year-old girls had the highest prevalence of anemia(13.3%), and 7-year-old girls had the highest prevalence of moderate-to-severe anemia(4.8%). The highest prevalence rates of anemia were found in Hainan (24.1%) and Gansu(19.6%), while the lowest was in Beijing(2.0%). Logistic regression models revealed that, for children aged 7 and 9 years, when comparing to those lived in urban areas, living in rural areas appeared to be a risk factor for anemia (OR=1.34) and moderate-to-severe anemia(OR=1.48); when comparing to living in cities of upper socio-economic status, living in cities of intermediate socio-economic status appeared to be a risk factor for anemia (OR=1.43) and moderate-to-severe anemia(OR=1.41), and living in cities of lower socio-economic status also appeared to be a risk factor for anemia (OR=1.26) and moderate-to-severe anemia(OR=1.35). For students aged 12 and 14 years, girls were at higher risks for anemia and moderate-to-severe anemic(OR=2.41，2.20).@*Conclusion@#The overall prevalence of anemia was low in Chinese school-aged children, but substantial subnational disparity and subgroup disparity exists. Our data called for setting up context-specific measures, such as deworming and iron supplementation, to deal with child anemia. Intervention programs need to be implemented among adolescent girls and those with relatively low socioeconomic status.