Abstract
BackgroundNot enough is known about the prevalence of overweight and obesity in rural China in the current decade. We aim to update our knowledge of the prevalence of obesity and its associated risk factors and comorbidities in a large population sample in rural Northeast China.MethodsA population-based survey of 11,579 participants aged 35 years and older was conducted in rural areas of Liaoning Province during 2012–2013. Anthropometric measurements, information on health-related variables and blood biochemical indexes were collected by well-trained personnel.ResultsThe prevalence of general obesity and overweight was found to be 7.8% and 37.2%, respectively. The overall prevalence of abdominal obesity was 15.1%. Female gender, ethnic minority, middle-school education and a family income of 5,000–20,000 CNY per year were found to be risk factors for general obesity, while older age, female gender, ethnic minority and longer sleep duration (>8 h/d) increased the risk of abdominal obesity, after adjusting for confounders. Overweight and obese participants had significantly higher risks to develop prehypertension, hypertension, high LDL-C and low HDL-C compared with normal weight participants, while abdominal obesity was associated with increased risks of diabetes and high TG after adjusted for multiple factors. Compared with participants with a normal BMI and no abdominal obesity, the participants classified as abdominally obese and normal BMI; as abdominally obese and overweight; and abdominally obese and generally obese each had a progressive increase in the odds of hypertension (OR: 1.961, 95% CI: 1.154 to 3.331, OR: 2.744, 95% CI: 2.126 to 3.541, and OR: 8.990, 95% CI: 5.858 to 13.795, respectively) and high TG (OR: 3.165, 95% CI: 2.183 to 4.588, OR: 3.980, 95% CI: 3.332 to 4.755, and OR: 4.340, 95% CI: 3.574 to 5.271, respectively).ConclusionsThe prevalence of obesity in rural Northeast China exhibited a remarkably increasing upwards trend. General and abdominal obesity were associated with different subtypes of cardiometabolic comorbidities, the combined effects of which on the comorbidities dramatically increased.
Highlights
Not enough is known about the prevalence of overweight and obesity in rural such as Mongol and Manchu (China) in the current decade
Current smokers or drinkers were more common in participants with normal body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC)
Overweight and obese participants had significantly higher risks for prehypertension, hypertension, high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) compared with normal weight participants, while abdominal obesity was associated with increased risks of diabetes and high TG after adjustment for the potential contributions
Summary
Not enough is known about the prevalence of overweight and obesity in rural China in the current decade. We aim to update our knowledge of the prevalence of obesity and its associated risk factors and comorbidities in a large population sample in rural Northeast China. Aside from being a potentially modifiable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor on its own, this non-communicable disease has propelled an upsurge in other cardiometabolic comorbidities, including hypertension, dyslipidaemia, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome [3,4]. Because BMI reflects a combination of both fat mass and lean mass and WC reflects a measure of central fat distribution, the combination of these two indexes might be a more powerful predictor for health risks. There have been limited studies clarifying the associations between these two parameters and cardiometabolic comorbidities, such as hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidaemia, in the rural Chinese population
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