Abstract
Anemia is a serious nutritional deficiency among infants and toddlers in rural China. However, it is unclear how the anemia status changes among China’s rural children as they age. This study investigates the prevalence of anemia as children grow from infancy to preschool-age, as well as the dynamic anemia status of children over time. We conducted longitudinal surveys of 1170 children in the Qinba Mountain Area of China in 2013, 2015 and 2017. The results show that 51% of children were anemic in infancy (6–12 months), 24% in toddlerhood (22–30 months) and 19% at preschool-age (49–65 months). An even larger share of children (67%) suffered from anemia at some point over the course of study. The data also show that although only 4% of children were persistently anemic from infancy to preschool-age, 8% of children saw their anemia status deteriorate. We further found that children may be at greater risk for developing anemia, or for having persistent anemia, during the period between toddlerhood and preschool-age. Combined with the finding that children with improving anemia status showed higher cognition than persistently anemic children, there is an urgent need for effective nutritional interventions to combat anemia as children grow, especially between toddlerhood and preschool age.
Highlights
As one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, children are disproportionately at risk for health and nutrition issues [1]
We find no significant differences in standardized full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) scores at any point in time between children with deteriorating anemia status and children who were never anemic
The results demonstrate that anemia affects a large share of children in rural
Summary
As one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, children are disproportionately at risk for health and nutrition issues [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that anemia affects 293 million children under 5 years old, accounting for 47.4% of children in the same age group globally [2]. The majority of these children are concentrated in developing countries [3]. International studies have shown that anemia during early childhood can lead to consequences in both the short and long term. Children with anemia have significantly lower mental, motor and socioemotional development than those without anemia [4,5,6,7]. In part due to these cognitive delays, childhood anemia has been linked to poor school performance, lower educational attainment and worse employment outcomes in adulthood [9,10,11,12]
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