Overweight, obesity, and screen-time viewing among Chinese school-aged children: National prevalence estimates from the 2016 Physical Activity and Fitness in China—The Youth Study

Purpose: This study presents the most recent estimates of prevalence of overweight, obesity, and screen-time viewing among Chinese school-aged children. Demographic differences in these estimates between sexes and resident locales were also examined.Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of 116,615 Chinese school children 9 to 17 years of age who participated in the 2016 Physical Activity and Fitness in China—The Youth Study project. Outcomes were the prevalence of children's overweight(85 th ≤ body mass index(BMI) < 95 th percentile) and obesity(BMI ≥95 th percentile)(defined by the Working Group on Obesity in China) and not meeting screen-time viewing recommendations("not meeting" was defined as more than 2 h per day of viewing activities after school). Analyses were conducted on the whole sample and by school grade cohorts(primary, junior middle, and junior high schools), sex, and residence locales(urban, rural).Results: Overall, 14.4%(95% confidence interval(CI): 13.8%–15.0%) of children and adolescents were overweight, 11.9%(95%CI: 11.0%–13.0%) were obese, and 36.8%(95%CI: 34.7%–38.9%) did not meet screen-time viewing recommendations. Across the 3-grade cohorts, boys were more likely to be obese than girls, and primary and junior middle school children living in urban areas were more likely to be obese than those living in rural areas. Primary and junior middle school boys were less likely to meet screen-time recommendations than girls, and junior high school children living in urban areas were less likely to meet screen-time recommendations than school children of the same grades living in rural areas.Conclusion: In 2016, the prevalence of obesity among Chinese school children was about 12%, and about 37% of them did not meet screen-time viewing recommendations. The prevalence of obesity and sedentary behavior was generally higher among boys than among girls, and it was higher for children living in urban areas than for those living in rural areas.

Scrutinizing the causal relationship between schizophrenia and vitamin supplementation:a Mendelian randomization study

Objective: Observational studies have reported malnutrition and vitamin deficiency in patients with schizophrenia (SZ), which can lead to serious metabolic syndromes and decrease anti-psychiatric drug outcomes. Whereas, vitamin intake along with psychiatric medication can enhance the medication outcomes. However, it is still unknown if SZ induces vitamin deficiency. Herein, we conduct the Mendelian randomization analysis to explore the causal relationship between schizophrenia and vitamins supplementation.Methods: We retrieved the genome-wide summary statistical data for schizophrenia from recent SZ GWAS data (43,175 cases and 65,166 controls) and vitamins supplementation GWAS data from Neale’s GWAS datasets (more than 337,000 samples from the European population) and performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to determine the causal association of SZ with vitamin supplementation, in addition, we conduct the sensitivity analysis to obtain reliable results and remove confounding bias.Results: SZ have causal relationships with vitamins A, B, C, D, and E (SZ/vitamin A: β = 0.002, se= 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.001 to 0.004,P= 1.41E-05, heterogeneityP= 0.4486;SZ/vitamin B: β= 0.004, se= 0.001, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005,P= 7.0E-05, heterogeneityP= 0.2217;SZ/vitamin C: β= 0.004, se= 0.001, 95% CI: 0.002-0.007,P= 0.001, heterogeneityP= 0.1349;SZ/vitamin D: β= 0.003, se= 0.001, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005,P= 0.001, heterogeneityP= 0.433;SZ/vitamin E: β= 0.003, se= 0.001, 95% CI: 0.002-0.005,P= 5.0E-05, heterogeneityP= 0.1382).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that vitamin levels and supplementation should be carefully controlled in patients with SZ, which in turn may enhance the therapeutic effects of antipsychotic drug treatments.