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Family average income and body mass index above the healthy weight range among urban and rural residents in regional Mainland China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Fei Xu ,
Xiao-Mei Yin ,
Min Zhang ,
Eva Leslie ,
Robert Ware  and
Neville Owen
Fei Xu*
Affiliation:
Nanjing Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, 2 Zizhulin, Nanjing 210003, People's Republic of China
Xiao-Mei Yin
Affiliation:
Nanjing Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, 2 Zizhulin, Nanjing 210003, People's Republic of China
Min Zhang
Affiliation:
Nanjing Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, 2 Zizhulin, Nanjing 210003, People's Republic of China
Eva Leslie
Affiliation:
Cancer Prevention Research Center, The University of Queensland, Australia
Robert Ware
Affiliation:
School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Australia
Neville Owen
Affiliation:
Cancer Prevention Research Center, The University of Queensland, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Email f_xufei@hotmail.com
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Abstract

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Objective

To explore the relationship between family average income (FAI; an index of socio-economic status) and body mass index (BMI; a widely used, inexpensive indicator of weight status) above the healthy weight range in a region of Mainland China.

Design

Population-based cross-sectional study, conducted between October 1999 and March 2000 on a sample of regular local residents aged 35 years or older who were selected by random cluster sampling.

Setting

Forty-five administrative villages selected from three urban districts and two rural counties of Nanjing municipality, Mainland China, with a regional population of 5.6 million.

Subjects

In total, 29 340 subjects participated; 67.7% from urban and 32.3% from rural areas; 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The response rate among eligible participants was 90.1%.

Results

The proportion of participants classified as overweight was 30.5%, while 7.8% were identified as obese. After adjusting for possible confounding variables (age, gender, area of residence, educational level, occupational and leisure-time physical activity, daily vegetable consumption and frequency of red meat intake), urban participants were more likely to be overweight or obese relative to their rural counterparts, more women than men were obese, and participants in the lowest FAI tertile were the least likely to be above the healthy weight range.

Conclusions

The proportion of adults with BMI above the healthy weight range was positively related to having a higher socio-economic status (indexed by FAI) in a regional Chinese population.

Keywords

ObesityOverweightPrevalenceMainland ChinaBody mass indexSocio-economic status
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 2005 , pp. 47 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2005

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