About 295,000 Beijing children are overweight and more are
suffering from obesity-related diseases, a new survey shows.
The three-year survey by the Capital Institute of Pediatrics
(CIP) also revealed that 8.4 percent of the 23,400 respondents aged
below 18 were obese. This was equal to 231,000 youngsters in the
city.
In addition, nine percent of the respondents were troubled with
high blood pressure. Another 9.8 percent had cholesterol problems,
Monday's Beijing Morning Post cited the survey as saying.
Such chronic ailments that are commonly found in adults have
been increasingly affecting young people, said Mi Jie, an expert
with the CIP, the survey organizer.
The poll, which involved an investment of nearly 6 million yuan
(about 822,000 U.S. dollars), is considered to be the most
authoritative research on child health in Beijing to date.
Experts attributed child obesity to unhealthy dietary habits,
less physical exercise, inadequate sleep and excessive amounts of
salt in meals.
Obese kids are more prone to cardiovascular diseases and
diet-related illnesses such as diabetes than children of normal
weight, Mi said.
There are about 20 million people suffering from diabetes in
China, according to the Ministry of Health. The number of child
diabetes cases accounted for about five percent of all patients.
The figure is increasing by 10 percent annually, Li Qiang, an
endocrine secretion professor said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2008)