Cohort Profile: the China-Anhui Birth Cohort Study.

The China-Anhui Birth Cohort Study (C-ABCS) was set up to examine the delayed, cumulative and interactive effects of maternal environmental exposures on birth outcomes and children's development. The C-ABCS recruited pregnant women from six major cities of Anhui province, China, between November 2008 and October 2010. A range of data (including demographic, obstetric, occupational, nutritional and psychosocial factors) were collected by both interviews and laboratory tests. In each trimester, women's blood samples were drawn, and pregnancy complications were abstracted from physician's medical records. By the end of 2011, birth outcomes/birth defects were observed/identified by clinicians within 12 months after the delivery of 11,421 singleton live births of six cities and those outcomes among the remaining 2033 live births are still being observed. In addition, 4668 children from Ma'anshan city will be further followed up during the pre-school period till they reach adolescence to obtain the data on familial environmental exposures as well as children's physical, psychological, behavioural and sexual development. The interview data and information on laboratory examinations are available on request from archives in the Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Population Health & Aristogenics.

Periconceptional folic acid supplementation among women attending antenatal clinic in Anhui, China: data from a population-based cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: to examine the rate of periconceptional and optimal folic acid supplementation, and to characterise their patterns and determinants among antenatal women in central China. DESIGN: data from 4290 women in the Anhui Birth Defects and Child Development Cohort Study recruited between October 2008 and September 2009 were analysed. SETTING: seven Maternal and Child Health Centres of two cities (Hefei and Maanshan) in Anhui province of central China. PARTICIPANTS: women initiating prenatal care were included and asked to complete a structured questionnaire regarding folic acid supplementation. FINDINGS: sixty-eight per cent (2905/4290) of pregnant women reported taking folic acid supplementation periconceptionally (i.e. at some point before or during early pregnancy), and 32.8% (1405/4290) and 65.2% (2797/4290) had taken it before or during early pregnancy, respectively. However, only 16.1% (690/4290) used it optimally (i.e. regularly from four weeks before pregnancy throughout four weeks after pregnancy). Use of periconceptional folic acid was significantly associated with educational level, household income, registered residence, age, gestational age at recruitment, and planning of pregnancy. CONCLUSION: optimal folic acid supplementation was relatively low. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: further efforts are needed to inform the population and promote the use of folic acid supplementation.

['Life satisfaction' as a moderator or mediator of accommodation category and loneliness for rural school students].

OBJECTIVE: To examine life satisfaction as a moderator or mediator of accommodation category and loneliness for elementary and middle school students in rural areas so as to provide evidence for psychological health intervention among said students. METHODS: All participants were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire battery which including an 18-item General Health Questionnaire, Children's Loneliness Scale and Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction. RESULTS: The average score of loneliness scale (35.0 +/- 9.5) among boarding-school students was significantly higher than those students living at home (33.1 +/- 10.1) (P < 0.01). The average scores on school-satisfaction (33.5 +/- 6.3), friend-satisfaction (42.1 +/- 6.2) and self-satisfaction (32.4 +/- 5.0) of boarding-school students were significantly higher than those students living at home (35.9 +/- 6.6, 42.9 +/- 6.6, 32.9 +/- 5.3) (P < 0.05). The association between accommodation category and loneliness was fully mediated by school-satisfaction (the standardized coefficients of loneliness was reduced from 0.043 (P < 0.05) to 0.021 (P > 0.05) and partly mediated by self-satisfaction and friend-satisfaction. Data through Moderation analyses indicated that self-satisfaction, school-satisfaction and friend-satisfaction did not serve as moderators. CONCLUSION: Accommodation category, life satisfaction seemed to be good predictors on loneliness among elementary and middle school students and the fully mediated effect of school-satisfaction between accommodation category and loneliness was significant, suggesting that intervention of loneliness should focus on these variables.