OBJECTIVETo understand the prevalence of anemia in children living in poor rural villages in western China and to find out related factors affecting hemoglobin level of children so as to search for proper intervention.

METHODS3747 children under 3 years old and their families were studied using stratified random sampling in 40 counties in western China. Databases were set up, and data logically checked by Epi 6.0 software. All the data were input with duplication method and analyzed by SPSS 10.0 software.

RESULTSThe prevalence of anemia of children under 3-year-old was 32.7% in 40 counties with significant difference among provinces with the highest in Guizhou province (43.5%). The lowest was in Ningxia and Qinghai provinces, which was 20%. The prevalence of anemia of children was relatively high in 6 and 18 months of age after birth, but declining when children grew older. Many factors were associated with children's anemia, viz. feeding pattern, age, diarrhea, family income, nationality, mother with anemia and drinking clean water etc.

CONCLUSIONInterventions as popularizing knowledge of appropriate feeding, drinking clean water and decreasing the prevalence of common diseases including diarrhea would decrease the prevalence of anemia of local children.