BMJ  2006;333:362-363 (19 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7564.362

Editorial

Overweight and obesity in China

The once lean giant has a weight problem that is increasing rapidly

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

About one fifth of the one billion overweight or obese people in the world are Chinese. China was once considered to have one of the leanest populations,¹ but it is fast catching up with the West in terms of the prevalence of overweight and obesity; disturbingly, this transition has occurred in a remarkably short time.²

Data from the 2002 national nutrition and health survey showed that 14.7% of Chinese were overweight (body mass index (BMI; kg/m²) 25) and another 2.6% were obese (BMI 30), such that there are currently (2002) 184 million overweight people, and a further 31 million obese people, in China, out of a total population of 1.3 billion (table).³ Although the prevalence of obesity in China is relatively low compared with Western countries such as the United States, where over half of adults are either overweight or obese, it is the rapid increase of the . . . [Full text of this article]

Department of Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Institute and Fu Wai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, #167, Beilishilu, Xicheng, Beijing 100037, People's Republic of China
(yangfengwu@263.net)

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