Anemia in rural China's elementary schools: prevalence and correlates in Shaanxi Province's poor counties.

摘要

Despite growing wealth in China, a significant share of children across rural China still have no access to iron-rich foods, vitamins, and other micronutrients. Such poor diets may result in high incidences of nutritional problems, including anemia. The objective of this study was to increase understanding of the extent of anemia, and identify structural correlates of anemia in poor Shaanxi province primary schools. Results suggest that the overall anemia rate is 21.5% when using a blood hemoglobin cut-off of 115 g/L (39 percent with a cutoff of 120 g/L). Students that are boarding at school and eat lunch away from home are more likely to be anemic. Children with anemia are found to have lower height for age scores. If this part of Shaanxi province is representative of all poor counties in China, these findings mean that millions of children in poor rural China may be anemic.