China’s growing waistline

About 20% of the more than 1 billion overweight people in the World are Chinese. China is often overlooked when discussing the obesity crisis that is sweeping the developed World because the prevalence of overweight and obesity in China is relatively low at 15% when compared with countries such as the United States where over half of the population are overweight. An article in the British Medial Journal by Professor Yangfeng Wu from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has suggested two key reasons why we should be taking more notice of this looming crisis in China.
Professor Wu points out that there has been an alarmingly rapid increase in overweight and obesity in China in recent years, especially in school children for whom prevalence of overweight increased 28 times between 1985 and 2000.
Professor Wu also points out that there is increasing evidence that the World Health Organization’s definition of overweight and obesity, which is derived from studies on the correlations between Body Mass Index (BMI) and disease in white populations, may not be applicable to Asian populations. The Working Group on Obesity in China has recommended that lower BMI cut points should be used to determine overweight and obesity in China. If these cut points were used then over a quarter of a billion people in China would be regarded as overweight or obese.
The explanations for China’s recent epidemic of overweight and obesity are the same as for the rest of the World. Poor diet and reduced levels of physical activity due to the continuing modernization of transport and labor activities. China has the added problems of a widespread belief that excess body fat represents health and prosperity and that it has become difficult to find safe places in over crowded residential areas to exercise or even walk.
Professor Wu said that China needs to act now if it is to have any chance of preventing a further increase in obesity rates. He suggested that as a first step, the prevention and control of obesity should be listed in China’s framework and policy on health. He hopes that by acting now China may be able to achieve where the West has so far failed in halting the growing obesity problem.