Genetic basis of STEM occupational choice and regional economic performance: a UK biobank genome-wide association study.

BACKGROUND: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals are regarded as the highly skilled labor force that fosters economic productivity, enterprise innovation, and international competitiveness of a country. This study aims to understand the genetic predisposition to STEM occupations and investigate its associations with regional economic performance. We conducted a genome-wide association study on the occupational choice of STEM jobs based on a sample of 178,976 participants from the UK Biobank database. RESULTS: We identified two genetic loci significantly associated with participants' STEM job choices: rs10048736 on chromosome 2 and rs12903858 on chromosome 15. The SNP heritability of STEM occupations was estimated to be 4.2%. We also found phenotypic and genetic evidence of assortative mating in STEM occupations. At the local authority level, we found that the average polygenic score of STEM is significantly and robustly associated with several metrics of regional economic performance. CONCLUSIONS: The current study expands our knowledge of the genetic basis of occupational choice and potential regional disparities in socioeconomic developments.

The impact of political status and social capital on herders' overgrazing behaviors in the pastoral areas of China.

Overgrazing has become one of the main factors affecting grassland degradation over the past two decades in China. To solve this problem, the government has implemented a grassland ecological compensation policy and grazing monitoring system that is highly dependent on rural cadres. However, few studies have analyzed the impact of political status (rural cadres' identity) on overgrazing. This study reveals the impact of political status on herders' overgrazing behavior. It evaluates the moderating effect of social capital on this impact using a linear regression model based on survey data from 640 herder households in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Qinghai, China. The results show that herders with political status are more likely to overgraze. The level of trust in rural cadres has a positive moderating effect on the influence of political status on herders' overgrazing. Small farms with political status are more likely to overgraze compared to large farms. Grazing monitoring by local government can reduce the overgrazing of herders with political status and weaken the positive effects of political status and the trust level in rural cadres regarding overgrazing. Therefore, local governments should monitor more strictly grazing activities for herders with political status, especially those with small grassland scales, and pay more attention to the role of herders' social capital in constructing a sustainable grassland governance mechanism.

The impact of the peer effect on adolescent drinking behavior: instrumental-variable evidence from China.

Background: Governments around the world have taken measures to limit adolescent drinking, however, rates are still alarmingly high. However, most of these measures ignore the peer effect of drinking among adolescents. Previous studies have not sufficiently considered the reciprocal relationship between adolescent alcohol consumption and peer alcohol consumption, which may lead to an overestimation of the peer effect and mask underlying issues. Good instrumental variables are powerful but rare tools to address these issues. Objective: This paper aims to correctly estimate the peer effect of drinking on adolescent drinking behavior in China. Methods: Owing to the detailed information of household background in the dataset of our survey, we were able to use the drinking behaviors of peers' fathers and their beliefs about the health risks of alcohol as instrumental variables, which are more powerful than school-average instrumental variables. We collected data from the 2017 Health and Nutrition Panel survey, which surveyed 10,772 primary school students from 59 urban migrant and 60 rural public schools. Results: The instrumental variable method estimation revealed that peer drinking significantly influences adolescent drinking behavior, with adolescents who have peers who drink alcohol being 10.5% points (2 stage least square, i.e., 2SLS, full sample estimation) more likely to engage in drinking compared to those without such peers. Furthermore, the effect differs significantly between migrant and rural adolescents. Conclusion: The study found that parental care plays a significant role in the degree of peer effect, with the absence of parental care being a key factor in the presence of the peer effect.

Alcohol Consumption and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Mendelian Randomization Study from Rural China.

Alcohol consumption has been associated with the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in observational studies. The result is inconsistent and whether the association is causal remains unknown. To examine the causal effect of alcohol consumption on MCI in rural China, this study used a cross-sectional dataset that included 1966 observations collected in rural China, of which 235 observations' genotyping were collected. All participants accepted the MCI evaluation using Mini-Cog and were asked about the participants' alcohol consumption behavior. The causal effect of alcohol consumption on MCI was investigated by Mendelian randomization (MR) of genetic variation in the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2 rs671) gene. The risk of MCI in Chinese rural areas was 43%. Alcohol consumption was causally associated with a higher risk of MCI under MR design. Parameter estimates of drinking or not (b = 0.271, p = 0.007, 95% CI = 0.073 to 0.469), drinking frequency during the past 30 days (b = 0.016, p = 0.003, 95% CI = 0.005 to 0.027), and the weekly ethanol consumption (b = 0.132, p = 0.004, 95% CI = 0.042 to 0.223) were all positive and statistically significant at the 5% level. In conclusion, there was a high risk of MCI in rural China, and alcohol consumption was causally associated with a higher risk of MCI.

Dark Side or Bright Side: The Impact of Alcohol Drinking on the Trust of Chinese Rural Residents.

Existing studies have explored the causal effect of social capital on harmful drinking, while the effect of drinking habits on trust is scant. In China, drinking rituals and drinking culture are considered important ways of promoting social interaction and trust, especially in rural areas where traditional culture is stronger. Based on a field survey in rural China in 2019, this paper explores the relationship between drinking habits and trust. First, we found a negative relationship between drinking habits and trust, indicating that those people who drink alcohol are more likely to have a lower trust. Second, we found significant heterogeneity in the effect of alcohol consumption on social trust across various groups. Specifically, the negative effects of alcohol consumption on trust were stronger for the females than for males; drinking alcohol did not reduce the level of trust among the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in rural China; compared with the Han nationality, we found that the effect of drinking on trust was not significant for the ethnic minority. Third, we observed that the negative effects of alcohol consumption on trust had thresholds across age and income. Among people under 51, the risk of trust from drinking was greater than for those over 51; the negative effect of drinking on residents' trust was more obvious in low-income families, but not significant in the group with an annual household income of more than CNY 40,000. Our empirical study provides a deeper understanding of drinking culture in rural China from a dialectical perspective.

Does Subjective Dietary Knowledge Affect Sugar-Sweetened Carbonated Beverages Consumption and Child Obesity? Empirical Evidence from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China.

Worldwide, overweight and obesity have become an important public health problem affecting the health of children and adolescents. In China, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has reached 19 percent among the 6-17-year-old age group. Although studies have shown that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), especially sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages (SSCBs), is positively correlated with overweight and obesity among children, the research on ways to reduce SSBs consumption is scarce. This study fills this gap by analyzing data on nearly 4000 students aged between 9-15 from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China, exploring possible influential pathways between subjective dietary knowledge, SSCBs consumption, and child obesity. The estimation results show that SSCBs consumption significantly mediates the relationship between dietary knowledge and the incidence of overweight and obesity; the mediated effects are different among subgroups. Therefore, improving dietary knowledge related to the lowing of SSBs consumption to reduce the obesity risk may be considered a possible way to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children.

Alcohol Use and Depression: A Mendelian Randomization Study From China.

Background: Alcohol use has been linked to a number of physical conditions, but the relationship between alcohol drinking and depression, one of the most common mental disorders that is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease, is still under debate. We aim to help fill the literature gap on the causal effect of alcohol use on depression by using genetic instruments of ALDH2 rs671 and ADH1B rs1229984 in the Mendelian randomization (MR) framework. Materials and Methods: We collected a sample of 476 middle-aged and older adults from mainland China. The 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) was used to measure the status of depression. The frequency and intensity of alcohol consumption were measured by (1) a binary indicator of drinking or not, (2) the total number of drinking occasions during the past 30 days, and (3) the weekly ethanol consumption in grams. Results: MR estimates indicated that alcohol use was causally associated with a lower risk of depression. Parameter estimates of drinking or not (b = -0.127, p = 0.048), number of drinking occasions (b = -0.012, p = 0.040), and weekly ethanol consumption (b = -0.001, p = 0.039) were all negative and statistically significant. The results were robust after adjustments for potential confounders (e.g., income, smoking, and parental drinking behaviors), and the exclusion of heavy or former drinkers. Conclusions: This is one of the first study to investigate the causal relationship between alcohol use and mental health using an MR design in East Asian populations. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms of this causal link.

Does Dietary Diversity Reduce the Risk of Obesity? Empirical Evidence from Rural School Children in China.

Childhood and adolescence overweight and obesity have implications for both health consequences and economic burden. Although it has been an emerging public health problem for primary school children in rural China and the importance of the diet-health link has been stressed for many years, rigorous analysis of the dietary diversity and obesity among children is rare. To clarify this issue, this study provides a better understanding of the functional linkage between dietary diversity and obesity by analyzing data from nearly 8500 rural primary students (aged from 10 to 13 years old) covering three provinces in China. Our estimation results show that there is a significantly negative correlation between dietary diversity and the probability of being overweight among primary students. In particular, for subgroups with higher dietary diversity, the negative correlation between dietary diversity and the incidence of overweight or obesity is stronger, and the absolute value of the coefficient is greater. The results also suggest that the increase in the consumption frequency of all dietary categories can significantly lead to a lower proportion of overweight. Thus, we conclude that higher dietary diversity can help to lower the risk of overweight and obesity among primary school children, presumably through increasing the daily frequency of food intakes and developing a more diverse dietary pattern.

Impacts of boarding on primary school students' mental health outcomes - Instrumental-Variable evidence from rural northwestern China.

This paper estimates the impacts of boarding on primary school students' health outcomes, using data on 7606 students from rural areas of two northwestern provinces (Qinghai and Ningxia) of China. Exogenous variations in students' home-to-school distance are exploited to address potential endogeneity in their boarding status. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that while boarding has little impact on students' physical health (measured by height-for-age and BMI-for-age z-scores and hemoglobin concentration levels), it has a significantly detrimental effect on their mental health status, amounting to 0.455 standard deviations (SDs) of the distribution of scores on a Mental Health Test (a modified version of the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale). The effect of boarding is more pronounced for students with relatively advantageous backgrounds. For example, boarding boys scored 0.544 SDs higher on the Mental Health Test (suggesting more anxiety problems) than nonboarding boys, and boarders from relatively wealthier families scored 0.754 SDs higher than wealthier nonboarders. '.

Can School Feeding Programs Reduce Malnutrition in Rural China?

BACKGROUND: Childhood malnutrition is commonplace among poor rural communities in China. In 2012, China launched its first nationwide school-feeding program (SFP) to address this problem. This study examines the prevalence of malnutrition before and after the SFP and identifies possible reasons for the trends observed. METHODS: Ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching were used to analyze data from 2 cross-sectional surveys of 100 rural primary schools in northwestern China. Participants were fourth-and fifth-grade students. Outcome measures include anemia rates, hemoglobin levels, body mass index, and height for age Z scores. RESULTS: Three years after implementation of the SFP, malnutrition rates among sample students had not fallen. The SFP had no statistically significant effect on either anemia rates or BMI, but was linked to an increase in the proportion of students with below normal height for age Z scores. Meals provided to students fell far short of national recommendations that the SPF should provide 40% of the recommended daily allowance of micronutrients. CONCLUSIONS: Despite significant budgetary outlays between 2012 and 2015, China's SFP has not reduced the prevalence of malnutrition among sample students. To make the SFP more effective, funding and human resources both need to be increased.

Impacts of Nutrition Subsidies on Diet Diversity and Nutritional Outcomes of Primary School Students in Rural Northwestern China-Do Policy Targets and Incentives Matter?

Many developing countries have implemented nutrition intervention programs to reduce child malnutrition. However, the effectiveness of these programs differs greatly, and it remains unclear what is causing the differences in effectiveness across different programs. To shed some light on this issue, this article examines the role the specificity of policy targets, along with the incentives attached, plays in affecting the effectiveness of nutrition intervention programs. More specifically, we examined how different policy targets (and the associated incentives) affect primary students' dietary structure and (thus) their nutritional and health status by analyzing a randomized intervention in rural Northwestern China that was designed with two treatment arms. The two treatments provided the same nutrition subsidy to project students but with different policy targets, one with a specific target of "anemia reduction" and the other with a general target of "malnutrition reduction". Our analysis revealed that compared to the treatment arm with only a general policy target, the treatment arm with the specific "anemia reduction" target was more effective at improving students' nutritional and health status, as measured by the incidences of being anemic and underweight, presumably through helping them develop a dietary structure with more flesh meat, bean products, vegetables, and fruits.

Hybrid marriages and phenotypic heterosis in offspring: Evidence from China.

In genetics, heterosis refers to the phenomenon that cross-breeding within species leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents and exhibit improved phenotypic characteristics. Based on the theory of heterosis and existing genetic evidence, offspring of "hybrid" marriages (spouses originating from different states/provinces/countries/areas), though relatively rare due to physical boundaries, may exhibit greater genetic fitness in terms of intelligence, height, or physical attractiveness (the "distance-performance" hypothesis). This study explores whether heterosis is a contributing factor to offspring's educational attainment in China by applying a high-dimensional fixed effects (HDFE) modelling framework to the unique 0.1% micro-sample of the 2000 Chinese Population Census data. Concerning potential endogeneity of hybrid marriages, we conduct a series of robustness checks. Reassuringly, the estimated heterosis effect remains significantly positive across various measurements, after controlling for parental educational attainments/height, environmental influences, and over a thousand region and region-by-year fixed effects. The effects in male and higher-educated offspring are found to be stronger. Results are replicated when analyzing body height using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Although endogeneity of "hybrid marriages" may not be completely ruled out, the current study sheds light on the potentially beneficial effects of interprovincial migration on population-level human capital accumulation, and we hope that this paper can intrigue future studies that further address endogeneity. The implied heterosis effect could, therefore, be profound for Homo sapiens as a species from an evolutionary point of view. An additional important implication is that the overall genetic influences of parents on offspring's performance may be further decomposed into a conventional heredity effect and a heterosis effect that has been neglected previously.

Effectiveness of provider incentives for anaemia reduction in rural China: a cluster randomised trial.

OBJECTIVES: To test the impact of provider performance pay for anaemia reduction in rural China. DESIGN: A cluster randomised trial of information, subsidies, and incentives for school principals to reduce anaemia among their students. Enumerators and study participants were not informed of study arm assignment. SETTING: 72 randomly selected rural primary schools across northwest China. PARTICIPANTS: 3553 fourth and fifth grade students aged 9-11 years. All fourth and fifth grade students in sample schools participated in the study. INTERVENTIONS: Sample schools were randomly assigned to a control group, with no intervention, or one of three treatment arms: (a) an information arm, in which principals received information about anaemia; (b) a subsidy arm, in which principals received information and unconditional subsidies; and (c) an incentive arm, in which principals received information, subsidies, and financial incentives for reducing anaemia among students. Twenty seven schools were assigned to the control arm (1816 students at baseline, 1623 at end point), 15 were assigned to the information arm (659 students at baseline, 596 at end point), 15 to the subsidy arm (726 students at baseline, 667 at end point), and 15 to the incentive arm (743 students at baseline, 667 at end point). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Student haemoglobin concentrations. RESULTS: Mean student haemoglobin concentration rose by 1.5 g/L (95% CI -1.1 to 4.1) in information schools, 0.8 g/L (-1.8 to 3.3) in subsidy schools, and 2.4 g/L (0 to 4.9) in incentive schools compared with the control group. This increase in haemoglobin corresponded to a reduction in prevalence of anaemia (Hb <115 g/L) of 24% in incentive schools. Interactions with pre-existing incentives for principals to achieve good academic performance led to substantially larger gains in the information and incentive arms: when combined with incentives for good academic performance, associated effects on student haemoglobin concentration were 9.8 g/L (4.1 to 15.5) larger in information schools and 8.6 g/L (2.1 to 15.1) larger in incentive schools. CONCLUSIONS: Financial incentives for health improvement were modestly effective. Understanding interactions with other motives and pre-existing incentives is critical. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN76158086.

Anaemia among students of rural China's elementary schools: prevalence and correlates in Ningxia and Qinghai's poor counties.

Although the past few decades have seen rising incomes and increased government attention to rural development, many children in rural China still lack regular access to micronutrient-rich diets. Insufficient diets and poor knowledge of nutrition among the poor result in nutritional problems, including iron-deficiency anaemia, which adversely affect attention and learning of students in school. Little research has been conducted in China documenting the prevalence of nutritional problems among vulnerable populations, such as school-age children, in rural areas. The absence of programmes to combat anaemia among students might be interpreted as a sign that the Government does not recognize its severity. The goals of this paper were to measure the prevalence of anaemia among school-age children in poor regions of Qinghai and Ningxia, to identify individual-, household- and school-based factors that correlate with anaemia in this region, and to report on the correlation between the anaemic status and the physical, psychological and cognitive outcomes. The results of a cross-sectional survey are reported here. The survey involved over 4,000 fourth and fifth grade students from 76 randomly-selected elementary schools in 10 poor counties in rural Qinghai province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, located in the northwest region of China. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and standardized tests. Trained professional nurses administered haemoglobin (Hb) tests (using Hemocue finger prick kits) and measured heights and weights of children. The baseline data showed that the overall anaemia rate was 24.9%, using the World Health Organization's blood Hb cut-offs of 120 g/L for children aged 12 years and older and 115 g/L for children aged 11 years and under. Children who lived and ate at school had higher rates of anaemia, as did children whose parents worked in farms or were away from home. Children with parents who had lower levels of education were more likely to be anaemic. The anaemic status correlated with the adverse physical, cognitive and psychological outcomes among the students. Such findings are consistent with findings of other recent studies in poor, northwest areas of China and led to conclude that anaemia remains a serious health problem among children in parts of China.