Anemia of School-Age Children in Primary Schools in Southern China Should Be Paid More Attention despite the Significant Improvement at National Level: Based on Chinese Nutrition and Health Surveillance Data (2016–2017)

Globally, anemia among school-age children (SAC) remains a serious public health problem, impacting their growth, development, educational attainment and future learning potential. National and subnational anemia prevalence among SAC in China has not been assessed recently. Based on data from Chinese Nutrition and Health Surveillance (2016–2017), the current anemia status of SAC in primary schools in China was investigated. Anemia prevalence of SAC in primary schools in China was 4.4%, dropping 63.6% compared with that in 2002. Even though anemia was no longer a significant public health problem at the national level, there were significant spatial disparities of anemia prevalence in different areas: anemia prevalence in 63% of provinces of northern and eastern China has lowered to below 5%, while in provinces of southern China, it was still ranging from 5% to 11.0%, about 3 times of other areas. For those children in southern China, mother’s education level (OR = 1.24, p = 0.04) and father’s education level (OR = 1.27, p = 0.01) below senior high school, eating meat less than 3 times per week (OR = 1.18, p = 0.01) were risk factors of anemia. Older age (OR = 0.35–0.72, p < 0.01) was a protective factor. Targeted interventions should be taken to improve SAC anemia in Southern China, despite anemia of SAC in primary schools no longer being a significant public health problem