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5 - Obesity and nutritional health in Hong Kong Chinese people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2009

By
Gary T. C. Ko
Edited by
Ryutaro Ohtsuka  and
Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Gary T. C. Ko
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, 11, Chuen On Road, Tai Po New Territory, Hong Kong
Ryutaro Ohtsuka
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo
Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Introduction

Obesity is a major health problem in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere because of its increasing prevalence and the morbidity and mortality associated with it (Seidell et al. 1996; World Health Organization 1998; Behn and Ur 2006). The prognostic significance of obesity in cardiovascular disease and total mortality is mainly due to its close associations with hypertension, dyslipidaemia, hyperinsulinaemia and glucose intolerance (Sowers 2003; Bray 2004; Behn and Ur 2006). There are also close associations between various anthropometric measures of body fatness, including body mass index (BMI), waist–hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC), and multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Most of these relationships are independent of age and smoking, and some of the risk factors increase in severity exponentially with increase in fatness and obesity.

Western definitions of obesity, if used to determine levels in Asian populations, give much lower prevalences than among European and North American populations. For example, if a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 is used to define obesity, up to 25% of Europeans but only 2% to 5% of Hong Kong Chinese will be classified as obese (Ko et al. 1999a; Rossner 2002). However, there is now a wealth of data showing that the prevalences of both type 2 diabetes and hypertension are reaching epidemic proportions among Asians, despite currently low prevalence rates of obesity, as defined as BMI greater than 30 kg/m2, in all nations of Asia.

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Chapter
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Health Change in the Asia-Pacific Region , pp. 88 - 100
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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