Study On Prevalence, Secular Trends And Health Risk Of Overweight And Obesity Among Chinese Adults

ObjectivesThe aims of the study are to study the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Chinese adults in2010, to analyze the disparities of distribution between urban and rural, among eastern, central and western area of China and among populations with different education levels and economic status, to study the trends and speed of increments in prevalence of overweight and obesity from2004to2010, to investigate the prevalence and trends in prevalence of central obesity by using waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio, to analyze the health impact and burden of overweight and obesity and to provide scientific evidence, technical support and policy recommendations for obesity control and prevention.MethodsThe data was collected from Chinese Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Surveillance2004,2007and2010, which carried out on the Disease Surveillance Points System (DSPs). The DSPs was proved a representative sample of mainland China.We analyzed the prevalence and of overweight, obesity, central obesity and related influencing factor using data from surveillance2010. We also analyzed the clustering of cardiometabolic diseases and risk factors among population with different level of body weight, judging from body mass index using cut-off points recommended by Working Group on Obesity China. We analyze the trends and changing speed in prevalence of overweight, obesity and central obesity among Chinese adults aged18to64years using data from surveillance2004,2007and2010. We applied complex sampling data analysis method and weighting the data using sampling weight and post-stratification adjustment using the population from census2010. All the analysis was conducted using SAS9.3statistical software. Results1. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Chinese adults aged18years and above in2010was30.6%and12.0%(men31.8%and12.1%vs. women29.4%and12.0%), respectively. The prevalence for different age groups showed an increasing trend at first from18-24y and then decline from40-45y. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was32.6%and13.7%in urban area vs.29.5%and11.0%in rural area, respectively. The characteristic of distribution by different education levels was significantly different among men and women. The prevalence of overweight and obesity both showed a positive association with education levels and household income level for men and a negative association for women.2. The prevalence of overweight among Chinese adults aged18-64years in2004,2007,2010was23.0%,27.4%and32.1%(men23.0%,27.4%,32.1%vs. women24.7%,25.7%,29.1%), respectively. The average increasing rate from2004to2010of overweight prevalence was4.3%per year. The prevalence of obesity of2004,2007,2010was7.2%,7.7%and12.1%(men6.3%,6.7%,12.5%vs. women8.1%,8.7%,11.7%), respectively. The average increasing rate of obesity prevalence was9%per year. The increasing speed for overweight and obesity among men was5.7%and12%, respectively, which is significantly faster than that among women and the increasing speed in rural area was faster than it in the urban area. The overweight to obesity ratio shrunk from3.6:1in2004to2.6:1in2010.3. The prevalence and clustering proportion of cardiometabolic diseases and risk factors among overweight and obesity population were significantly higher than those among normal weight population. The prevalence of diabetes among overweight and obesity population was11.6%and18.3%respectively. The proportion of cardiometabolic diseases clustering was31.1%and47.6%, respectively. The proportion of cardiometabolic risk factors clustering was61.0%and76.5%, respectively. After adjustment of age, current daily smoking, current drinking and family history of hypertension or diabetes, the odds ratio of cardiometabolic diseases clustering was3.8for overweight to non-overweight among men and4.3for obese to non-obese men. The odds ratio among women was3.4and3.5respectively. The odds ratio of cardiometabolic risk factors clustering was3.4for overweight to non-overweight among men and4.4for obese to non-obese men. The odds ration among women was3.3and3.9respectively.4. The prevalence of central obesity among Chinese adults aged18years and above was40.7%(men39.6%vs. women41.8%). The prevalence increased as the age increasing and leveled off after50years old for men and65years old for women. The prevalence among men was higher than it among women before45years old and was lower after then. The prevalence in urban area was higher than it in rural area (46.4%vs.35.6%). The prevalence of central obesity among Chinese adults in2004,2007,2010was31.8%,34.6%and39.8%(men29.4%,33.7%,39.7%vs. women34.3%,35.5%,39.9%), respectively. The average increasing speed from2004to2007was3.8%per year. The average increasing speed in rural area was much faster than it in urban area. The increasing speed in western area was7.5%per year which was faster than central and eastern area. The proportion of central obesity among normal-weight population was14.8%(men12.5%vs. women17.2%).Conclusions1It was estimated that there were120million people obese and320million overweight in2010. The characteristic of distribution by different education level was significantly different among men and women.2The prevalence of overweight, obesity and central obesity between2004and2010shows and accelerated increasing trends among in rural urban area and among different population. The speed of increasing was high in rural area, western area and among men.3The cardiometabolic diseases and risk factors were highly clustered among obese and overweight population.4Nationwide strategies and tailored measures for different area and populations for obesity control and prevention must be developed to cope with the challenge of rapid development of obesity. The implementation of obesity control and prevention measures should be strengthened. We should also advocate the healthy concepts such as to keep energy balance, watching the weight and exercise is medicine. More attentions should be paid to the population in western area and rural area. We should also develop more appropriate techniques and enhance effect evaluation on obesity control and prevention measures.