文章编号：1000-8020(2000)05-0308-06

Executive summary of food and nutrition surveillance

in 1998 and policy recommendation

Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, State Statistic Bureau of China, Working Group on Chinese

Food and Nutrition Surveillance

Written by

Chen Chunming

（Chinese Academy of Preventive medicine, Beijing100050, China）

Based on the experiences of the pilot study in 1990 to 199 5, a National Food and Nutrition Surveillance System was established in 1997. U nder the collaboration of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System(FNSS) Worki ng Group of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, the Urban Household Surv ey Team and the Rural Household Survey Team of the State Statistic Bureau of Chi na, the national surveillance network is formulated by stratified random samplin g. It consists 40 sites, 26 rural sites and 14 urban sites in 26 provinces.

In 1998, data on food consumption, anthropometric measurements of children under 6 were collected, basic information of households and feeding practice were recorded by questionnaire. In 1998 surveillance, 1857 rural households and 869 urban household were sampled and whole year food consumption of the households collected by Household Survey Teams was used. Height and weight of 16436 children under 6 were measured, around 400 sampled at each site. Hemoglobin of children in 9 sites was tested. Household salt samples were collected in all sites.

Following is the report on food and nutrition status in 1998.

1Nutrition status of children

16436 children under 6 were sampled, number of children under 5 in urban is 4859, and 8862 in the rural sites. WHO/NCHS standard is used for evaluation.

1.1Prevalence of underweight

The national average prevalence of underweight of children under 5 was 9.6%, 12.6% in the rural and 2.7% in the urban areas. The average prevalence of underweight of children at age 0～3 month was 0.2% and 0.8% for urban and rural respectively. But after 6 month, the prevalence of rural children went up rapidly, reached 9.3% at age of 6 month, the peak at 12 month was 17.9% and leveled off until 5 year of age, which was 12%～15%(P271).

The prevalence of underweight of urban children of all age group under 5 was between 1.2% to 3.5%(P271). But the prevalence of Z Score wt／ht＞2 was 5.4%, w hich was higher than 3.9% in 1992(P273).

1.2Prevalence of stunting

The national average prevalence of stunting of children under 5 was 16.7%, 22.6% for rural and 4.1% for urban. Comparing with the NCHS standard, the median of height of urban children aged 0～3 month had no difference, but the prevalence of rural children aged 0～3 month was 11.6% stunted. It went up to 23.7% at 12 month of age and peaked to 28.9% at 18 month. Then leveled off after 24 month of age to 20%～25%. In urban, peak of stunting was 5.2% at 18 month of age, then to 3 %～4% later on(P271).

Comparison of 1998 figure with that in 1990 and 1995 pilot surveillance showed the growth of children have been improving along with the rapid economic development in the country. The continuous reduction of prevalence of underweight demonstrated the immediate effect of economic progress, 42.5% reduction in urban and 21.2% in rural were achieved during 1990～1995. But prevalence of stunting was not improved in parallel, it reduced very little, almost no change during 1990～1995 and it exerted dramatic reduction during the period of 1995～1998. Such pattern of growth improvement illustrated that the favorable factors for weight catch-up was not adequate enough for parallel linear growth, which means more approaches should be considered.

Linear growth of child requires more animal food, especially for children aged 2～5. It has been proven that height during early childhood is highly correlated wi th mental development and health of their later life, hence the productivity and diseases of their adult life^［1～3］. Nutrition as an essential component for economic development should be recognized, and consequent better developmen t in the future could be predicted if more concern is given to the nutrition of children under 5 in rural China where one fourth of them are stunted.

2Food consumption and nutrition of urban residents

1875 rural household and 869 urban households were involved, food consumption records have been collected at these households under the supervision of the local reviewers of the State Statistic Bureau. Data of 1997 was transferred to the FNSS Working Group for further cleaning and analysis.

2.1Food consumption

The household average consumption of foods in kg/capita/year were: cereals 126, vegetable 147, fruits 73, vegetable oil 9.9, pork 24, beef/lamb 4.4, poultry 9.4, fish 17, eggs 16, beans/bean products 5.7. Calculate to kg/reference man/year, the figures were 135, 158, 78, 10.6, 26, 4.7, 10, 18, 17, 6.2 respectively. The consumption of cereals and vegetables increased along with income increase, but the amount of cereals consumed in 1997 was 25kg less than the figure collected in 1992 Nationwide Nutritional Survey. Vegetable oil consumption was stable, the 25% lower income households consumed a little higher. Total animal food consumption was 75.9kg/capita/year. Compare with the amount in 1992, animal food was 12.5kg mo re consumed, poultry consumption was remarkably increased and no change of fish consumption, consumption of eggs was similar across the income groups. Pork consumption of the 10% lowest income households was 7kg less than the urban average, and their consumption of eggs, poultry and vegetables were much lower than the urban average(P291).

2.2Nutrition of the diet

The daily energy intake of urban household was 2419kcal/Reference man, which has been stable since 1992. Energy from fat was 28.6%, which was 28.4% in 1992 ［4］. Daily protein intake of Reference man was 74.4g, the same as in 1992(75g), 37.6% of protein was animal protein, and protein from beans was only 4.4%. Energy from cereals dropped to 52.9% from 57.4% in 1992 and energy from animal food increased from 15.2% to 18.7%. The trend of dietary change since 1992 was increase of animal food along with reduction of cereal consumption, but before 1992, the dietary change was characterized with swift and continuous increase of vegetable oil.

Desirable Dietary Pattern (DDP)-China for 2000 was applied for evaluation of dietary pattern^［5］, the score for diet of urban households wa s 90, the dietary pattern was reasonable. But the score for cereals was 27 points compared with the desirable score 30, and score of animal food got penalty of 9.3 points which was 1.7 points higher than the penalty in 1995, and score for beans/bean products was far beyond desirable with 9.1 points deficit(P292). These indicated that the transitional changes and the hidden danger of the diet. The direction of accomplishing the goal of a balanced diet will be: maintain cereal consumption, keep animal food moderate and encourage bean consumption to replace part of animal food..

The continuous increase of animal food caused sharp increase of fat and cholesterol intake