Analysis Of The Status Quo And Influencing Factors Of Infants And Toddlers In Poor Rural Areas Of Western China

Since the reform and opening up,China's economy has experienced sustained and rapid development for 40 years,but since 2013,GDP growth has begun to fall,and the imbalance of economic structure has become a prominent obstacle to the rapid development of GDP.Faced with this phenomenon,General Secretary Xi proposed the new economic normal and supply-side structural reforms,hoping to promote economic development by comprehensively upgrading China's human capital stock.However,China's human capital is scarce,and the industrial upgrading is not enough.Therefore,the promotion of human capital is imminent.Early child development is the basis for the formation and development of human capital in the future.The first 1000 days of life is the most important stage of human brain growth and development,and it is the stage of highest return on human capital investment.In many developing countries,including China,there is a serious lag in the early development of child.In developing countries around the world,there are as many as 200 million children under the age of 5 who are lagging behind in development.There is also an imbalance in the development of urban and rural children in China.The key to improving the future of human capital in China is to improve the early development level of infants in rural poverty areas.Although many studies on the early child development have been carried out in China,most of these studies focus on urban areas.There are few studies on the early development status and influencing factors of infants in rural poverty areas.The research on the development status,trends and the influencing factors affecting the early development of infants have important theoretical and practical significance.The data of this study were from the nutrition intervention project carried out in rural poverty areas of S province from April 2013 to October 2014.The 598 infants(6-12 months old)in the control group were selected to establish a four-wave infant early development research cohort.After the first wave of the baseline survey,tracking was conducted semi-annually and tracked a total of three times(the second wave was 12-18 months old,the third wave was 18-24 months old,and the fourth wave was 24-30 months old).The survey used the Bayley scales of infant development(BSID I),which is widely used internationally,to collect infants' mental development index and psychomotor development index.The healthy examination of infants including hemoglobin concentration,Body length and weight;using structured questionnaires to collect information on infant level,parental level and family level.Descriptive statistics were used to describe the early development status and trends of infants aged 6-30 months in rural poverty areas.Logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of infant cognitive and motor impairment.Finally,multiple regression models were used to test the robustness.The results show that:(1)infants in rural poverty areas in western China have higher risk of cognitive impairment,and the rate of cognitive impairment increases significantly with the increase of infants' age;the rate of motor development impairment increases with age.And significantly reduce the trend.(2)The problem of anemia in infants in rural poverty areas in western China is serious.(3)A variety of characteristics are related to the development level of infants between 24 and 30 months in rural poverty areas in western China:whether the age of education for infant mothers and fathers is below 9 years is related to the level of cognitive development of infants;Whether it is premature birth,growth retardation,whether the mother's education years are below 9 years,whether the father's health is related to the level of infant motor development.(4)Whether the mother's education period is below 9 years is the influencing factor of infants' cognitive and motor development impairment.Whether the father's education period is below 9 years is the influencing factor of infants' motor development impairment.Based on the above research conclusions,the corresponding policy recommendations are proposed:(1)The government can further improve the social public service system,and can establish a parenting center,with special personnel to explain the scientific parenting knowledge to the caregivers,and equip them with suitable toys and picture books to the rural poverty areas.Appropriate and early intervention for infants;(2)It is recommended that the government increase the construction of early health service systems to ensure that infants with anemia can find early intervention,and improve the nutrition education content of infants.(3)The government should pay special attention to the early development of infants in low-educated mothers and the cognitive development of infants in low-educational families.It is recommended that the government increase investment in rural poverty areas and improve high school enrollment in rural poverty areas to improve rural areas.The educational level of future infant and child parents in poor areas.