Medical researchers study from pregnancy to adulthood
A child's breathing is checked.
Domestic children below two years old are taller and bigger than ten years ago, with the increase rate higher than the standard set by the World Health Organization, a large-scale research project has found.
Led by Shanghai’s Xinhua Hospital, some 16,000 pregnant women participated in the research. It followed the whole process of pregnancy and the growth of the children to study risk factors influencing children’s health, the connection between pregnancy and healthy child development as well as the influence of non-contagious diseases on grown children.
The data found that boys below 2 years old are 0.3 centimeter taller and 0.25 kilograms heavier, while girls are 0.5 centimeters taller and 0.34 kilogram heavier, compared with ten years ago.
The research also found children born by cesarean surgery are more likely to suffer allergic diseases like asthma and allergic rhinitis and obesity than those with natural birth. Breastfeeding can reduce risks.
“It is the nation’s first such research, which strictly follows the protocol of international research, and collects information and evidence for genetic and environmental functions for children’s physical and psychological development as well as on diseases,” said Sun Kun, Xinhua’s president and leader of the research project.
The hospital began the first phase of the project in 2012, with 5,000 couples recruited from 10 local hospitals, following the children from pregnancy to delivery, and their growth. Doctors from Xinhua checked the children, who are aged 7 and 8 years, on Saturday and plan to conduct the next check when they are 10 years old.
Another phase of the project was launched in 2016, when Xinhua and cooperating hospitals in Shanghai and other provinces conducted long-term research on risk factors during children’s growth. So far, some 16,000 women have been included into the project.
“Every pregnant woman in the project will have a special bar code with all their medical history," said Zhang Jun, the project’s chief scientist.
"Their biological samples are kept in special refrigerators, to study details of pregnancy, nutrition supplement use, diet, environment, complication during late pregnancy and newborn baby’s condition. It is a precious database, which is expected to develop very useful information and research in the coming years."
Experts said they will mainly target risk factors which can lead to adult non-contagious illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
“We plan to follow the children until they are 50 years old, the peak time for developing these non-contagious diseases,” Sun Kun said. “It will be very useful for providing information for disease prevention and control in the future.”
Blood pressure is checked.
A doctor performs tests.
