Dual Burden of Malnutrition among Chinese Children and Adolescents Aged 2–18 Years

Abstract

The increase in overnutrition among children globally has been documented but it is important to note that undernutrition remains as a serious problem. Fifteen‐year trends in China were studied among children and adolescents aged 2–18 years with five rounds of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (collected in 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2004). Age and gender‐specific cutoff points for BMI from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references were used to define undernutrition (BMI < 5 percentiles), and overweight and obesity (BMI ≥ 85 percentiles). The results showed that the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity increased in the past 15 years from 9.1% in 1991 to15.9% in 2004, while the prevalence of undernutrition decreased slowly from 13.5% to 11% during the same period. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased much faster in rural areas (from 8% to 15.9%) where malnutrition is still prevalent compared to their urban counterparts. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased most rapidly in older adolescents (from 2.2% to 10.3%), while undernutrition increased in the same age group as well (from 11.7% to 15.4%). More exploration is needed to understand these increases among both undernutrition and overweight and obesity among adolescents.