85 million Chinese are obese, but the growth rate of obesity has slowed down! Lancet published a report on Chinese disease

Recently, Li Xinhua, Ding Gangqiang, Wu Jing and others from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in The Lancet stating that over the past decade, the weight of Chinese people has continued to rise and the obesity rate has been increasing, but the growth rate of obesity has slowed down.

Overall, the standardized average body mass index (BMI) of Chinese people was 22.7 kg/m2 in 2004 and reached 24.4 kg/m2 in 2018. The obesity prevalence increased from 3.1% to 8.1%.

In 2018, the number of obese adults aged 18 to 69 in China was about 85 million, including about 48 million males and about 37 million females. The total number of obese people was about three times that of 2001.

The study found that the average BMI of Chinese adults increased by 0.17 kg/m2 from 2004 to 2010. From 2010 to 2018, the growth rate slowed down, and was only half of that from 2004 to 2010 (an increase of 0.09 kg/m2 per year).

Similarly, the annual increase in overweight and obesity rates after 2010 was slightly lower than before 2010 (6.0% vs 8.7%).

The authors said that although the growth rate of BMI among Chinese adults has slowed down, it is showing a more diversified trend, especially with obvious differences between urban and rural areas and between men and women.

Studies show that from 2004 to 2018, the average BMI, overweight rate and obesity rate of men increased faster than those of women.

In 2018, the average BMI of rural women was higher than that of urban women (24.3 kg/m2 vs. 23.9 kg/m2), but that of rural men was still lower than that of urban men (24.5 kg/m2 vs. 25.1 kg/m2).

Since 2010, the rate of increase in the average BMI, overweight and obesity rates of urban men and women in China has slowed down; the average BMI, overweight rate and obesity rate of male residents in rural China have increased slightly less than those in cities, but those of female residents in China are still on the rise.

Women with more education consistently had lower mean BMIs compared with women with less education, but the opposite was true for men.

Researchers said that although the obesity rate among Chinese adults is still increasing, the growth trend has slowed down compared with before 2010.

In addition, the changing trends of obesity in urban and rural areas are different, reflecting differences in economic development and education levels, physical activity and patterns, as well as increased total food calorie intake and animal food intake.

The study is based on six large-scale, nationally representative surveys on chronic diseases and risk factors, which included a total of approximately 650,000 adults aged 18 to 69 for analysis.

Source: China Circulation Magazine