Conference on progress of a Cohort Study of Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health in China

The Hebei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Hebei CDC) held a conference on "A Cohort Study of Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health in China" via video link on May 13, 2022. Project team members from the National Institute for Nutrition and Health(NINH) of the China CDC and the Hebei CDC, and representatives from the Health Bureau of Wuqiang county, Hebei province attended the meeting.

 

Dr. Zhenyu Yang, director of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Department of NINH, introduced the background as well as progress of the project and main problems faced at present.

 

Dr. Jianqiang Lai, deputy director of NINH, pointed out the challenges faced by the project and put forward requirements for its implementation. 

 

Dr. Lai emphasized that to implement the project, the project team should strengthen collaboration among national, provincial and county-level CDC, summarize the experience of on-site work and strive for more output, and form reports that can be used to support government policy-making.

 

Members of the Hebei CDC and the Health Bureau of Wuqiang county promised that they would ensure the quality of the project as required by the higher authorities.

 

“Cohort Study of Maternal and Child Health in China” is a prospective cohort study organized and implemented by the National Institute for Nutrition and Health, China CDC. It aims to improve maternal and child nutrition, the critical window of the first 1,000 days of the lives, understand dietary intake of pregnant and postpartum women, and assess the relationship between dietary/nutritional status and  health status of infants and school-age children.

 

The project has been carried out in Wuqiang county, Hebei province since June 2016. The Hebei CDC is responsible for supervising and providing technical support. According to the work plan formulated by the national working group, the CDC of Wuqiang county formulates the implementation plan and arranges on-site surveys.