An investigation now under way among 20,000 children in Beijing shows that the problems of obesity, hypertension and diabetes are no longer just for adults. More and more children are suffering from these chronic conditions.

However there are no definitive statistics available to show how many children are affected. There is also a lack of information on the diagnoses and prevention of the diseases of obesity among children. But now Beijing has a project in place to investigate how these normally adult diseases are affecting the capital's children. Funds of over 4 million yuan have been allocated for the research program which is scheduled to run for three years.

Obesity in children has become common in recent years. The proportion of obese children in Beijing has increased something like six-fold in 10 years. At the same time, the risks of hypertension, blood-fat disturbance and hyperinsulinemia (abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood) have increased four to twelve-fold. Doctors have been reporting more and more children suffering from diabetes as the number of obese children rises.

Doctor Mi Jie who is the director of the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, is in charge of the investigation. According to Dr Mi the current focus of childhood disease prevention and control is largely still on the diseases of the last century such as anemia, roundworm, dental caries, trachoma and malnutrition.

However, this approach has now fallen somewhat out of step with current developments and does little to promote the diagnosis and prevention of obesity in childhood. The children might reap lifelong health benefits if only they could get the psychological counseling and lifestyle guidance they need to help them onto the path of balanced diets and healthy sports together with the necessary clinical management and follow-up monitoring.

In order to generate fundamental statistical data on sickness ratios and causes of the diseases, experts from the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, the Children's Hospital, the Beijing Union Hospital, the Disease Prevention and Control Center and the Hospital for Women and Children's Health, will spend three years investigating obesity, hypertension, diabetes and blood-fat disturbance in 20,000 children in Beijing. Their research will shed new light on the diagnosis of the childhood onset of these chronic conditions, formerly reserved for the adult world.

A recent Diabetic Children's Drawing Competition helped to raise awareness and provided a forum for the experts to call on the whole of society to help these children.

Today there are probably more than 40,000 children with diabetes in Beijing.

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan March 29, 2004)