Search

Objective: To explore the ethnic differences on nutritional status of children under three years old, in the western areas of China and to identify the affecting factors., Methods: 14 072 children under the age of three years and their mothers were recruited, using the proportion population sampling method in 45 counties in the western areas of China. Height and weight were used as the measurement on nutrition of children., Results: Height and weight of children with Han, Uyghur, Tibetan and Zhuang ethnicities were all lower than the WHO standards and with differences on height and weight among them. There were also ethnic differences on the status of malnutrition. Prevalence rates of stunting were 14.7%, 20.3%, 26.9% and 26.5% for Han, Uyghur, Tibetan and Zhuang ethnicities, respectively. Prevalence rates of underweight were 6.1%, 10.7%, 6.8% and 15.5% among the Han, Uyghur, Tibetan and Zhuang ethnicities, respectively. The prevalence rates of wasting were 4.2%, 5.3%, 2.9%, 8.9%, and of under nutrition were 19.2%, 25.5%, 30.3% and 36.5% for the Han, the Uyghur, the Tibetan and the Zhuang ethnicities, respectively. When factors as family size, years of schooling of parents, family numbers, sex, age (months), mother's height and weight, ways of feeding and sources of family income etc. were adjusted, children with Uyghur, Tibetan, Zhuang and other ethnicities were still presented more malnutrition than the children with Han ethnicity., Conclusion: There were differences on malnutrition status of children under the age of three years among the studies on different ethnicities. Undernutrition was less than nutritional status, seen in children of the Han nationality than other minority ethnicities. Ethnicity seemed to be related to differences in the nutritional status of children in western China while children of the Han nationality would be better than other minorities on nutritional status if they were in same living conditional.

Objective: To study the serological characterization of indeterminate Western blot (WB) results of HIV antibody and to find a new way to verify the HIV antibody indeterminate results and provide references for editing "National Guideline for Detection of HIV/AIDS"., Methods: All of the 42 subjects who were confirmed as indeterminate HIV antibody in People' Liberation Army HIV Confirmation Laboratory from 2005 to 2006, were collected. Line immunoassay, HIV viral load test and HIV-1 p24 were tested and followed up for 3-6 months' to compare the changes of WB bands patterns., Results: (1) For the 42 individuals with indeterminate HIV antibody, a total of 8 different patterns of bands were found in WB test including 45.2% of them were p24 mono band, 30.9% were gp160 mono band, 11.9% were gp160 with p24, 2.4% (only one case) were gp160gp120 +/-, gp41p24, p24p17, gp41 or gp120 respectively. It was noticed that the most patterns of common bands with indeterminate results were p24 mono band, gp160 mono band and gp160 with p24, which composed 88.0% of the whole indeterminate WB band patterns. (2) Twenty three cases had been followed up for more than 3 months with 22 giving no WB band image change and were confirmed as HIV sero-negative. The other one with case gp160 and p24 had developed to more bands in the period of 77 days follow-up with more bands, including gp160, gp120, p66, p31, p24 and p17,showed up and was confirmed as HIV primary infection. (3) Line immunoassay was applied to all of those 23 cases who had been followed up and the results showed that only one serological change was found and the case was confirmed to be HIV-positive. Among the other 22 cases without serological changes, 16 cases were proved to be HIV-negative, 6 cases were still indeterminate. The specificity was 72.7%. P24 antigen test showed negative in all the 23 cases, including the case which later was confirmed as HIV-positive. Of all the 23 originally indeterminate cases, viral loads were tested in 7 cases. Positive result was found in the case which was proved later to be HIV-positive. No viral loads were detected in the other 6 cases (< LDL)., Conclusion: The most common band patterns of indeterminate HIV antibody were mainly p24 monoband, gp160 monoband or with p24. Most of them (95.6%) were not infected by HIV, the bands showed up in WB test and demonstrated as non-specific reactions. Line immunoassay could determine about 70% of the indeterminate reactions. Results from viral load test also suggested that it was an efficient method to discriminate indeterminate results. With these two techniques, HIV serology could be diagnosed without 3 months' follow-up in primary infection which gave indeterminate WB results.

Objective: The study was to describe the breastfeeding status of children under the age of three in counties of western China and to provide evidence to the government for decision-making on intervention., Methods: A cross-sectional study with probability-proportional-to-size (PPS) sampling method was used. The information on breastfeeding was obtained through memory of the mothers. Fourteen thousand and seventy-seven children were studied. Data on breastfed status in counties of western China was compared with those of the children from the survey of the counties of western China in 2001., Results: The breastfeeding rate of children under 3 years old in western China was 96.5%. However, the overall breastfed rate of children under 6 months were only 33.4%, with rates of 11.4% and 22.0% on exclusively and predominantly breastfed groups respectively. Timely first-suckling rate was 43.5% with the continued breastfeeding rate (1 year) as 64.9%, but the continued breastfeeding rate (2 year) was only 9.7%. Reasons causing mothers to wean would include according to her own intention and to be able to attend the physical labor while exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months was for the growth and development of children, which might reduce the two-week prevalence of diarrhea. Major risks of exclusive breastfeeding of children under 6 months were seen as: level of education of the mothers, economic depression of the counties and mother's nationality (if as minority)., Conclusion: Most of the children were ever or being breastfed at the time of interview with timely first-suckling took place earlier than in 2001. However continued breastfeeding did not last long. During these five years, the exclusive breastfeeding rate had been at low level, especially at the economic depression and the minority area.

Objective: To understand the current situation of maternal health care and the association between maternal health care and relevant factors., Methods: According to a cross sectional study design, 1512 mothers having children under 3 years old were drawn under stratified random sampling method and interviewed at their households in 15 counties, Tibet Autonomous Region of China., Results: 77.6% of the pregnant women received at least one antenatal checkup with an average of 3.89 times while the rate of antenatal checkup over 5 times was 26.3%. The hospital delivery rate was 40.4% in this area. 83.9% of the women received education under the health care program during pregnancy and 66.2% of them were visited by health workers after delivery. Major factors of the antenatal checkups would include the resource of income, living in nomadic area, personal sanitation, antenatal health care education, mobilization of delivery at hospital, knowledge of antenatal health care etc., Conclusions: There had been great improvement in women's health care in this area as compared with the status in 1999, but the frequency of receiving antenatal checkup was still not enough and the rate of hospital delivery was also low as compared with 46 counties in western areas of China. Poor knowledge of health care during pregnancy seemed to be the major factor that limited the utilization of antenatal health care. Knowledge on health and common sense of health care should be disseminated to improve the antenatal care and to enhance the hospital delivery rate.

Objective: To assess nutritional status among children younger than 3 years in 40 counties of western China, using anthropometry., Methods: With cross-sectional study and random sampling, a survey with a sample size of 7252 was conducted in 40 counties of western China on children under 3 years old. Height and weight were measured and nutrition status was evaluated with WHO/NCHS reference using Z scores., Results: SD of height for age (HA) and weight for age (WA) were 1.10 - 1.30 and 1.06 - 1.40, respectively and SD of WAZ for infants varied. The distribution of HA Z and WAZ shifted downward to 1 unit and 0.4 unit for distribution of weight for height (WHZ). The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 23.0%, 22.6% and 7.5% respectively. The prevalence rates were low among those yourger than 3 months. Stunting and underweight increased sharply after 6 months and reached 20% - 30%. Significant correlation was found between underweight and stunting or wasting with coefficients of 0.815 and 0.636, respectively. No correlation was found between stunting and wasting., Conclusion: The nutrition status adversely affected children as a whole but not only for individuals. There was a higher prevalence of malnutrition mainly on low height to children. Weight for age must be interpreted cautiously because of the inability of this indicator in distinguishing stunting and wasting just by itself. Assessment by anthropometry called for accurate information on age and measurement of height and weight.