Béo phì gia tăng ở Trung Quốc

một nghiên cứu toàn diện trong đó tính đến các yếu tố về giới tính, địa lý và GDP, cho biết gần một nửa dân số Trung Quốc hiện đang thừa cân hoặc béo phì.

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China’s national standards (tiêu chuẩn) on physical wellbeing are based on the body mass index, which is calculated (tính toán) by dividing a person’s weight by the square of his or her height. Someone with a BMI of 24 is classified (phân loại) as “overweight.” Once it reaches 28, they are “obese.”

Using this criterion (tiêu chuẩn), a research paper published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism (trao đổi chất) recently estimated that 34.8% of the population is overweight and 14.1% is obese. The findings were based on a study of about 15.8 million adults across 243 cities by a research team from the First Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, led by professor Mu Yiming. It is the largest investigation (cuộc điều tra) ever conducted (thực hiện) into the prevalence (sự phổ biến, thịnh hành) and associated complications (biến chứng) of obesity in China.

In addition to an increase in the number of overweight people, Mu’s team also noted another phenomenon (hiện tượng): being overweight has become more common among men than women. According to the data, 27.7% of Chinese women are overweight and 9.4% are obese, compared with 41.1% and 18.2% respectively for men.

The research by Mu’s team also suggests that men pay less attention to their size once they pass 30 years old. An estimated 38.5% of Chinese males aged 30 to 34 are overweight, compared with 28.7% among 18 to 29-year-olds. The causes may include excessive (quá mức) stress, an irregular diet, alcohol abuse (lạm dụng), and a lack of exercise. On the cultural side, Chinese society is also arguably more tolerant (bao dung) of men being “out of shape,” particularly in middle age, meaning there is less stigma (sỉ nhục) attached to males gaining weight than for females.

However, the most fundamental (căn bản) factor is that people nowadays consume more food than previous generations. In the age of online takeout deliveries, people are tempted to eat too much and exercise even less.

source: Sixth Tone,