Objective: There is a remarkable growth in sugar-sweetened (SSB) production and obesity prevalence among school-aged children in China. This paper describes SSB consumption and its association with obesity among Chinese children aged 6–17 years in 2012. Methods: in total, 25,553 children aged 6~17 years enrolled in the China Nutrition and Health Surveillance 2010–2013 were included in this study. Data of SSB consumption frequency and quantity were obtained from a food frequency questionnaire, and the children’s nutritional status was assessed. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between SSB consumption and obesity status. Results: SSB intake was estimated as 181.0 g/day, occurring 2.2 times/week. Older children, males, children from urban areas, and children with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to consume SSBs. Children who consumed SSBs 1~5 times/week (12.9%) were more likely to be overweight/obesity than those who consumed SSBs less than once/week. Conclusion: SSB consumption was common among Chinese school-aged children, especially among males, older children, and children from urban areas. High consumption of SSBs was associated with a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity. Actions and plans are required to reduce SSB consumption and control childhood obesity in China.

Dietary shifts in populations undergoing rapid economic transitions have been proposed as partly contributing toward the rapid intergenerational rise in myopia prevalence; however, empirical evidence of the effect of dietary factors on myopia is limited. This study investigated the association between dietary factors and incident myopia in Chinese children aged 10–11 years. We evaluated dietary habits using a 72-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) among 7423 children. Myopic status was assessed using the “General Personal Information Questionnaire”. Principal component analysis was used to extract dietary patterns and investigate their association with myopia. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants with the highest adherence to dietary pattern A (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66–0.92, p for trend = 0.007) and dietary pattern C (95% CI: 0.58–0.80, p for trend < 0.001) had a lower risk of myopia than participants with the least adherence. Both of these dietary patterns are characterized by high consumption of meats, aquatic product, dairy and its products, eggs, legumes, vegetables, fruits, grains, and potatoes. Our findings suggest that other environmental factors, such as those related to the dietary environment, may contribute to the development of myopia. These findings can serve as a reference for diet-related primary prevention of myopia.

Background/Objectives: The prevalence of both myopia and obesity is increasing among children and adolescents around the world. We aimed to examine the association between weight status and myopia in Chinese children and adolescents. Methods: The analysis included 35,108 participants aged 6–17 from a nationwide cross-sectional survey. Results: Our results indicated that girls with overweight and obesity had higher odds ratio (OR) of myopia and mild myopia: ages 6–8 (OR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.01–1.76; OR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.14–2.55) and 9–11 (OR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.03–1.44; OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.06–1.62). Myopic boys had higher body fat percentages (BFP) at ages 6–8 (β = 1.18, 95% CI: 0.38–1.98), 9–11 (β = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.08–1.07), and 15–17 (β = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.03–0.80), and higher body mass index (BMI) at ages 9–11 (β = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.12–0.48) and 12–14 (β = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.02–0.38). Girls had higher BFP at ages 9–11 (β = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.19–1.05) and 12–14 (β =0.53, 95% CI: 0.19–0.88) and higher BMI at 9–11 (β = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.34–0.73). Furthermore, the dose–response curves revealed a significant gender- and age-specific association between BMI, BFP, and myopia odds ratio. Conclusions: the study found an association between overweight or obesity and myopia in girls aged 6–11, and indicated that high BFP and BMI are associated with myopia, varying by sex and age.

The nutritional status of rural Chinese children has improved in recent years, but their nutritional knowledge is still relatively lacking. School-based nutrition and health education was conducted for children in three counties of China from 2018 to 2020. The students in the intervention schools were given two-year nutrition and health education courses, while the control schools did not receive any intervention. Students’ nutrition knowledge, dietary intake, and dietary behaviors were collected using a questionnaire, and height and weight were measured uniformly. The nutrition knowledge score in the intervention group was increased by 1.01 and 0.64 points in the first and second years. A multilevel model was used to evaluate the intervention effects. Statistically significant interactions between groups and time were observed in nutrition knowledge, the frequency of eating breakfast, and dietary intake, including meat, eggs, milk, and vegetables (p < 0.05), but not in nutritional status. Therefore, the supplementation of school-based nutrition and health education had a positive impact on the nutrition knowledge and dietary intake of rural Chinese children.

Parental absence in China, predominantly driven by labor migration, has created a substantial population of left-behind children, who face increased vulner

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between yogurt consumption and body fat percentage among Chinese children and to analyze the potential influence of factors such as sex, pubertal stage, and physical activity level on this association. Methods: This study conducted a nationwide survey using multi-stage stratified random sampling, including 48,305 children aged 6–17 years. Body fat percentage (BFP) was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Daily yogurt consumption was adjusted using the density method (daily yogurt consumption = daily yogurt consumption × 1000/total energy consumption). The association between yogurt consumption and body fat percentage was analyzed using quantile regression, with covariates adjusted for participants’ age, pubertal development stage, geographical region, total daily energy consumption, physical activity duration, annual household income, parental educational attainment, and consumption of other food categories. Results: Boys aged 6–10 years, 11–14 years, and 15–17 years had median daily yogurt consumptions of 28.6 g, 28.6 g and 21.4 g per day, with BFP values of 19.6, 19.5 and 17.5. Girls in the same age groups showed consumption of 28.6 g, 29.6 g and 28.6 g, with BFP values of 20.3, 26.4 and 31. The quantile regression results for boys showed that daily consumption of yogurt was significantly correlated with their BFP at the 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 0.85 and 0.95 quartiles, with regression coefficients of −0.207, −0.300, −0.688, −0.570, and −0.465 after adjusting for potential confounders. For girls, there was a significant correlation in the 0.75 and 0.85 quartiles, with regression coefficients of −0.290 and −0.582, after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions: A significant inverse association was observed between yogurt consumption and body fat percentage, with notable differences between boys and girls. Further intervention studies are warranted to evaluate the long-term effects of incorporating yogurt into the diets of Chinese children and adolescents on body fat percentage and obesity risk.