Time Trend and Demographic and Geographic Disparities in Childhood Obesity Prevalence in China—Evidence from Twenty Years of Longitudinal Data

Peng Jia, Hong Xue, Ji Zhang and Youfa Wang
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Peng Jia: Department of Earth Observation Science, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede 7500, The Netherlands
Hong Xue: Fisher Institute of Health and Well-Being, Systems-Oriented Global Childhood Obesity Intervention Program, College of Health, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306, USA
Ji Zhang: National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100000, China
Youfa Wang: Fisher Institute of Health and Well-Being, Systems-Oriented Global Childhood Obesity Intervention Program, College of Health, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-9

Abstract: Childhood overweight and obesity (ow/ob) has become a serious threat to many countries, including China. However, limited evidence was obtained from longitudinal data in China. This study examined the secular trends and geographic variation in the prevalence of ow/ob and obesity only, and age, gender, and urban-rural disparities among school-aged children across China. Data from children aged 6–17 surveyed in China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 (n = 2712) to 2011 (n = 1054) were used. Overweight and obesity were defined based on the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) recommended Asian age-sex-specific BMI cut-off-points. We found that: (1) childhood ow/ob and obesity prevalence increased from 11.7% to 25.2% and from 2.8% to 10.1% during 1991–2011, respectively; (2) children aged 6–12 experienced a 1.3 and 1.6 times increase in ow/ob and obesity prevalence than children aged 13–17, respectively; (3) the urban-rural gap in ow/ob prevalence widened; (4) ow/ob prevalence in boys was higher and increased faster than in girls, especially in an urban setting; and (5) geographic variation was observed with faster increases in more economically developed east, central and northeast regions than in the less developed west. The findings added more nuances to the picture of temporal changes in ow/ob prevalence among Chinese children.

Keywords: China; child; obesity; overweight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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