Alarming rise of youth obesity in China due to rapid socioeconomic changes
In 1985, only 1% of the boys and 1% of the girls under the age of 19 in China were obese. But a 29-year study that was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that in 2014, these numbers escalated to 17% of the boys and 9% of the girls. The study involved nearly 28,000 students in Shandong province. It also used a stricter cut-off of the Body Mass Index (BMI) than the World Health Organization standard.
Joep Perk from the European Society of Cardiology told a news agency that this is the worst upsurge in childhood and adolescent obesity he has ever seen. According to the study, the country’s fast socioeconomic and nutritional transition led to an increase in energy intake and a decrease in physical activity. The Chinese traditional diet has been replaced by a diet “with high fat, high energy density and low dietary fibre”.
The data was taken from six government surveys of rural school children in Shandong aged between seven and 18. The study said that the percentage of overweight children has also grown from 0.7% to 16.4% for boys and from 1.5% to nearly 14% for girls.
“The traditional, societal preference for sons, particularly in rural areas, may mean that boys are likely to enjoy more of the family’s resources,” the study says about the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity in boys.
The WHO classifies a BMI – the ratio of weight-to-height squared – of 25-29.9 as overweight and from 30 upwards obese. This study used a lower cut-off of 24-27.9 for overweight and 28 and above for obese.
The researchers recommend that “comprehensive strategies of intervention should include periodic monitoring, education on the pattern of nutrition, physical exercises and healthy dietary behaviour”.
Source: BBC News
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