Obesity and Its Related Diseases in China: The Impact of the Nut ...

Chapter 1

Introduction

This monograph describes a series of studies examining the prevalence and characteristics of obesity and its related metabolic diseases in China, where urbanization and socioeconomic development are occurring at a dramatic pace. It is important to understand health implications of these changes and identify efficient markers to estimate these health consequences.

Along with socioeconomic development, traditional lifestyle of the Chinese is changing towards the pattern in Western society, especially in urban areas. At the same time, prevalence of obesity and diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate. Overweight and obesity were rare in 1982 in China—only 3.7% of adults had BMI ≥ 25 kg/m². The prevalence increased four-fold to 15.4% and showed a significant urban-rural difference (18.7% vs. 13.7%) in 1997. Diabetes prevalence was very low before 1990, approximately 1.5% or less, even in the urban populations (1). A recent survey in 2000–2001 showed that the prevalence of diabetes had increased to 5.5% (2). Cardiovascular disease has now become the leading cause of death in China (3, 4).