[Prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among 2508 college students in 6 provinces of China].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in college students and to explore the association of CSA with youth mental health problem. METHODS: A retrospective survey was conducted among 2508 students (females 1360, males 1148) in Nov. 2003 to Mar. 2004. The students were from 6 colleges/universities in Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Anhui provinces of China. RESULTS: Of the 2508 students, 24.8% of females and 17.6% of males reported one or more types of nonphysical contact CSA (females 20.0% vs. males 14.6%) or/and physical contact CSA (females 14.1% vs. males 7.8%) before the age of 16 years. Risk of any CSA was not associated with the existence of siblings (one-child vs. two-or more child families), rural/non-rural residence during childhood, or parental education. Compared with their peers who had no CSA, the students with CSA showed significantly higher mean scores of psychological symptoms of somatization, obsessiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism. CONCLUSION: The problem of CSA was not uncommon and there was a significant correlation between CSA experience and students mental health problems. More attention should be paid on CSA prevention and provision of health services for the victims.

Vitamin A deficiency and child feeding in Beijing and Guizhou, China.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the three major micronutrient deficiencies in the world. In order to investigate the status of VAD and child feeding in China, we conducted the survey in Beijing city and Guizhou province. METHODS: We included a high socioeconomic area (Beijing) and a low socioeconomic area (Guizhou province) in China in our study. Participants included 1236 randomly selected children aged 0-71 months from stratified clusters (628 in Beijing and 608 in Guizhou), 409 from urban and 827 from rural areas. A food intake frequency questionnaire was used for dietary assessment. Fluorescence microanalysis was carried out to measure serum retinol concentrations. Serum retinol cut-off values of less than 20 microg/dl and 30 microg/dl were defined as sub-clinical VAD and suspected sub-clinical VAD, respectively. RESULTS: No xerophthalmia or night blindness was found. The mean concentration of serum retinol was 31.5 microg/dl in the high socioeconomic group, and 26.5 microg/dl in the low socioeconomic group. Rural infants had lower concentrations of serum retinol compared with the urban ones (26.9+/-8.1 microg/dl vs 31.8+/-7.3 microg/dl). The prevalence of sub-clinical VAD among all the children was 7.8%, and increased to 15.7% in children from the low socioeconomic group. In infants from the high socioeconomic area, the prevalence of suspected subclinical VAD was 38.0%, increasing to 59.5% in infants from the low socioeconomic area. The children from the low socioeconomic area had significantly lower fequency of intake of meat than the children in other groups. The prevalence of suspected sub-clinical VAD was higher in the children with lower consumption frequency of vitamin A rich foods than the children with higher consumption frequency of vitamin A rich foods. CONCLUSIONS: VAD appears to be a moderate public health problem in certain areas of China. In areas with low socioeconomic status, VAD in childrean is more severe, and infants may be the group at the highest risk for VAD. Inadequate intake of vitamin A rich foods may result in VAD. A comprehensive long-term national strategy needs to be fostered in China for the treatment and prevention of the deficiency.

Influence of grandparents on eating behaviors of young children in Chinese three-generation families.

AIM: To investigate how grandparents influence their young grandchildren's eating behaviors in Chinese three-generation families. METHODS: This qualitative study used semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 parents (3 male and 9 female) and 11 grandparents (4 male and 7 female) in Beijing, China. RESULTS: Three domains emerged in this study: (1) grandparents were the primary caretakers of children in the three-generation families. They played an important role in planning and cooking family meals; (2) grandparents' attitudes influenced young children's nutrition and eating habits. They held the belief that children being heavy at a young age would assure that they had a good nutrition status and would become tall in the future. They showed a tendency towards urging the children to eat more meals and larger portions at served meals; (3) grandparents used food as an educational and emotional tool. They shaped the behavior of their grandchildren and expressed love and caring through food. CONCLUSIONS: Grandparents were dominant in shaping children's eating behavior in some three-generation families in Chinese urban areas. Nutrition education involving grandparents is a potential framework for developing a healthy dietary behavior in young children.