Alarmingly High Anemia Prevalence in Western China

Despite rapid growth in China, it is unclear whether the poor have benefited in terms of nutrition. This paper’s goal is to understand the prevalence of anemia among school children in western China.We report on results from seven cross-sectional surveys involving 12,768 age 8-12 students. Sample students were selected randomly from 283 primary schools in 41 poor counties of Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces. Data were collected through questionnaires and hemoglobin tests. The dataset represents 7 million age 8-12 children in poor western counties. The anemia prevalence was 34% using the WHO’s hemoglobin cutoff of