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New national data show alarming increase in obesity and noncommunicable chronic diseases in China

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 71, pages 149–150 (2017)Cite this article

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On 30 June 2015, China released The Nutrition and Health Status of the Chinese People national report,1 describing recent patterns and trends in Chinese residents’ nutritional status and noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs), which was developed based on recent national data. The challenges in China including what we and others previously reported serve as an alarming example of the growing global epidemic of NCDs.2, 3, 4

Although the new national data show obvious improvement in Chinese people’s nutritional status including increased height and reduced undernutrition problems, they revealed an alarming increase in obesity and NCDs during the past decade (Table 1). Obesity prevalence and NCDs mortality and morbidity have increased steadily since 2002, whereas for some diseases such as diabetes the increase is more dramatic. In 2012, prevalence of hypertension and diabetes was 25.2 and 9.7%, respectively, compared with 18.8 and 2.6% in 2002, respectively. Between 1993 and 2003, cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence increased from 31.4 to 50.0%. Between 1992 and 2002, prevalence of overweight and obesity (⩾18 years) increased from 14.6 to 21.8%.2

Table 1 Changes in nutritional status and NCDs in China between 2002 and 2012
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References

  1. The Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission. The Nutrition and Health Status of the Chinese People (2015 Report). Available at http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5OTIyODc1NA==&mid=205782183&idx=1&sn=12d59495ff4866ffa0d92023e4efc40e&scene=1#rd (accessed on 23 July, 2016).

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported in part by the National Institute of Health and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, Grant Number U54HD070725). The U54 project is co-funded by the NICHD and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Dr Weidong Qu’s effort is also supported by a research grant from the Chinese national science foundation (80173025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, Systems-Oriented Global Childhood Obesity Intervention Program, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Y Wang

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    L Wang

  3. Key National Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Chinese Ministry of Education,

    W Qu

  4. Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    W Qu

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Correspondence to Y Wang.

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Wang, Y., Wang, L. & Qu, W. New national data show alarming increase in obesity and noncommunicable chronic diseases in China. Eur J Clin Nutr 71, 149–150 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.171

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