Analysis Of 0-6 Months Old Children's Growth Status In Zhejiang Province

Research background:Nutritional status of children is an important criterion for evaluating the development of a country,which will be greatly influenced by the choice of a useful growth chart.In 2000,the CDC indicated new growth charts for children,and has been widely used all over the world,though it suffered from a number of drawbacks that made it inappropriate for assessing the growth pattern of individual children and populations. In April 2006 the WHO released new standards for assessing the growth and development of children from birth to 60 months of age.There are important differences between the WHO growth standards and the CDC growth charts that vary by groups, growth indicators,and specific Z-score curves.The differences between two growth charts during 0-6 months are not the same as during 6-60 months,which due to many reasons such as the different feeding type,but till now no research has described the difference of WHO and the CDC growth charts during this stage in detail.The Chinese children haven't been chosen as one of the reference groups for the WHO standards, though the total number of which is as big as one-fifth of the children all over the world. It's quite necessary to investigate the feasibility of the new standards in china. Objective:This study was to analyze the differences of WHO growth charts and the CDC growth charts during 0-6 months,and to find the nutrition status of children in Zhejiang Province aged from 0-6 months regarded by the WHO growth standards, therefore to offer a reference for widely use of the WHO standards in China.Methods:It is a prospective study to record weight and length of healthy and single birth babies from six Maternal and Child Care Service Centre in Zhejiang Province when they are aged 42days,3 months,4 months,5 months and 6 months.And then compare the difference of growth status judged by the WHO growth standards and the CDC growth references.Results:1.The average weight-for-age and the height-for-age in the 1.5^th month,the 3^rd month,the 4^th month,the 5^th month and the 6^th month:Average weight-for-age of boys are5.13kg,7.00kg,7.76 kg,8.35 kg,8.89 kg,Average height-for-age of boys are 56.85cm,62.68cm,65.12cm,67.31cm,69.25cm;Average weight-for-age of girls are 4.72kg,6.33 kg,7.07kg,7.66kg,8.18kg,Average height-for-age of girls are 55.74cm,61.14cm,63.64cm,65.71cm,67.64cm.2.Weight and length of the babies both surpass the WHO growth standards no matter for different ages or different genders.(P＜0.01 )From the 1.5^th to 6^th month,the weight-for-age Z-scores and the height-for-age Z-scores of WHO standards are 12 times and 6.8 times bigger than that of CDC references,what's more,the overweight rates increase for 5.1 times and the wasting rates decrease from 1.5%to 0%.3.The average WHO weight-for-age Z-score is 0.70,which is lower than the average CDC weight-for-age Z-score as 0.97(P＜0.01 except for the 6^th month),but the gap of two standards shrinks from the 3^rd months old to the 6^th months old.The average WHO underweight rate is 0.45%,that is a little higher than the CDC references as 0.35%(P≥0.05).4.The average WHO height-for-age Z-score is 0.60,which is slight lower than the CDC height-for-age Z-score as 0.66(P≥0.05 except for the 4^th month).The average stunting rates for WHO standards is 0.61%,which is a little higher than that for the CDC references as 0.39%(P≥0.05).5.The WHO weight-for-length Z-scores is not differ significantly from the CDC weight-for-length Z-scores(P≥0.05).The average overweight rates regarded by the WHO growth charts is 6.18%,which is higher than that of the CDC growth charts as 4.96%in a small degree(P≥0.05).The average wasting rate regarded by the WHO standards is 0.56%,which is slightly higher than the rate of the CDC growth charts as 0.50%(P≥0.05).Conclusions:1.The nutrition status of children in Zhejiang Province aged from 0-6 months have catched and even surpassed the WHO growth standards,with the gaps been enlarged when the babies grow up.There are uneven condition in the growth of the infants in Zhejiang Providence,so that we should propose scientific feeding ways including breastfeeding,adding complementary in time and balancing nutrition intaked.2.The growth status of the 0-6 months babies in Zhejiang Province regarded by the WHO standards differ from the CDC references with different months and indicators,and the WHO standards can mornitoring the growth status of the early infants preciser.