{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T15:57:56Z","timestamp":1790611076080,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790553600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007129","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007129","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Anaemia in children and adolescents is multifactorial, and evidence on dietary amino-acid intake in relation to anaemia remains limited. This study examined the association between dietary branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) intake and haemoglobin (Hb)-defined anaemia among Chinese children and adolescents using data from the 2016\u20132019 China Children and Lactating Women Nutrition and Health Survey. Among 11,134 eligible participants aged 6\u201317 years, quantile g-computation and the Boruta algorithm were first used to screen 20 dietary amino acids. A 1:4 propensity score-matched sample was then constructed, including 455 participants with anaemia and 1,819 with normal Hb levels. Dietary BCAA intake and its components, isoleucine (Ile), leucine (Leu) and valine (Val), were energy-adjusted using the residual method. Machine learning methods were used exploratorily for feature ranking, and conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs). After matching, total dietary protein intake was comparable between groups, whereas intakes of total BCAA, Ile, Leu, and Val were significantly lower in the anaemia group. In fully adjusted models, higher intakes of total BCAA, Ile, Leu, and Val were associated with lower odds of Hb-defined anaemia, with ORs of 0.95 (95% CI: 0.92\u20130.99), 0.82 (95% CI: 0.70\u20130.95), 0.91 (95% CI: 0.85\u20130.98) and 0.86 (95% CI: 0.78\u20130.95), respectively. Supplementary biomarker analyses showed lower ferritin and higher soluble transferrin receptor concentrations in the anaemia group, whereas high-sensitivity C-reactive protein did not differ between groups. These findings suggest that BCAA-related dietary characteristics may provide useful nutritional clues for anaemia-related assessment, although the association should not be interpreted as evidence of a BCAA-specific protective effect.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2026.1911612","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T15:28:28Z","timestamp":1790609308000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association between dietary branched-chain amino acid intake and anaemia risk in children and adolescents: a matched case-control study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Xuan","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Shandong Second Medical University","place":["Weifang, 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