Prevalence of short stature among children in China:A systematic review

• 作 者: Fulun Li Ke Liu Qianlong Zhao Junyi Chen Lingfei Liu Qingmu Xie Jing Yang
• 机 构: Department of Child Development and Behavior,Children’s Hospital of Gansu Province,Lanzhou Universit
• 出 处: 儿科学研究（英文）
• 发表日期: 2021年2期
• 关键词: Prevalence Short stature Meta-analysis China

Importance:The prevalence and characteristics of short stature(SS)among children in China should be assessed to provide guidance for planning and implementation of nationwide public health policies.Thus far,there have been no accurate estimates of the prevalence of SS in China.Objective:To analyze the prevalence of SS among children in China and to explore the influences of sex,area,age,study year,and study site on prevalence rates.Methods:Relevant literature was identified by searching the following databases:PubMed,Embase,The Cochrane Library,Chinese Biomedical Literature,China Knowledge Resource Integrated,WeiPu,and WanFang databases.Meta-analysis was carried out using STATA 11.2.Results:This meta-analysis included 39 studies with 348 326 Chinese participants;the studies covered 20 provinces,municipalities,and autonomous regions.The pooled prevalence of SS was 3.2％(95％confidence interval[CI],2.6％-3.7％;I2=99.8％).The prevalence of SS in boys and girls were 3.1％(95％CI,2.5％-3.7％)and 3.2％(95％CI,2.6％-3.9％),respectively.The sex difference was not statistically significant(P＞0.05).The prevalence of SS was higher in rural areas than in urban areas(4.7％[95％CI,3.6％-5.8％]vs.2.8％[95％CI,2.2％-3.4％];P＜0.001).The prevalence of SS was higher in West China(5.2％;95％CI,4.4％-6.0％)than in Northeast China(0.6％;95％CI,0.3％-0.8％),East China(2.3％;95％CI,1.9％-2.8％),or Central China(2.9％;95％CI,1.9％-3.9％).Interpretation:The prevalence of SS among children was higher in western and rural areas of China.Close attention to children's growth and development is needed to prevent the occurrence of SS.