Dietary intake and its relationship with physical growth and serum nutrient levels for preschool-aged children in southern China.

Objective: To investigate dietary intake among southern Chinese preschool-aged children and develop more targeted nutritional interventions. Methods: A total of 1383 preschool-aged children at Foshan Women and Children Hospital from January 2023 to December 2024 were enrolled. The participants' dietary, anthropometric and serum nutrient data were collected. Results: The incidences of underweight, overweight and obesity were 8.7 %, 3.6 % and 3.4 %, respectively. A total of 38.5 % and 46.1 % of the preschoolers exhibited ideal and intermediate overall diet quality, respectively. Obese/overweight children demonstrated higher overall diet and food diversity quality, and increased overall food intake, but used fewer dietary supplements than underweight children. Compared with high overall diet quality, low quality was a risk factor for being underweight, however intermediate and low quality presented as protective factors against being overweight. Hemoglobin level tended to increase as body mass increased. The overall diet quality had positive effects on hemoglobin, serum iron and ferritin levels. Conclusions: In southern China, most preschool-aged children have intermediate to high overall diet quality. However effective dietary factors for being underweight or overweight/obese are not exactly the same, therefore, nutritional interventions should be performed differently.