Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transl Med. Aug 12, 2015; 4(2): 55-59
Published online Aug 12, 2015. doi: 10.5528/wjtm.v4.i2.55
Nutritional determinants of anemia among adults in Eastern China
Zumin Shi, Anne W Taylor
Zumin Shi, Anne W Taylor, Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide, SAHMRI, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Zumin Shi, Department of Nutrition and Foodborne Disease Prevention, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Shi Z conceived the issues which formed the content of the manuscript and wrote the manuscript; Taylor AW contributed to the manuscript revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Zumin Shi, MD, PhD, Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Level 7, SAHMRI, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia. zumin.shi@adelaide.edu.au
Telephone: +61-8-83131188 Fax: +61-8-83131228
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 2, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: July 3, 2015
Accepted: July 24, 2015
Article in press: July 27, 2015
Published online: August 12, 2015
Abstract

Historically, Eastern China has the highest prevalence of anemia among adults in China. It is commonly believed that iron deficiency is the main cause of anemia in China. Iron fortified soysauce is used to prevent anemia. Findings from Jiangsu Nutrition Study suggest that diet is related to anemia in this region. However, iron deficiency is not the main cause. Micronutrients other than iron (e.g., riboflavin) need to be considered in the prevention of anemia in the region.

Keywords: Anemia, Diet, Iron, Riboflavin, Magnesium, China

Core tip: It is commonly believed that iron deficiency is the main cause of anemia in China. Here we summarize the evidence from Eastern China showing that it is not the case.