[Study on diet, physical activities and body mass index in Chinese population in 2002]

To describe the prevalence of behavior on diet, physical activities and body mass index (BMI) in different populations related to factors as education, occupation and geographical distribution.

Indicators including frequency of taking different foods, intake of cooking oil/fast foods, intensities of physical activities at work, proportion of taking physical exercises during the day, sedentary life style and BMI were calculated based on results from 17 questions of behavior risk factors surveillance (BRFS) questionnaire by weight on age structures from 2000 census.

Seventy percentage of the people took vegetable and 40 percent took fruits 5-7 days per week, and over 50 percent of them ate pork/beef/mutton but few of them ate beans and eggs. 25 percent of the people ate chicken/duck/fish/and shrimps 5-7 times per week but another 40 percent ate them only less then once per week. 70% of the people almost never drank milk or milk-products. 15 percent of them consumed sweet and greasy foods 3-7 days per week and 30 percent of them ate smoked food 3-7 days per week in the past 30 days. The proportions of food intake were different under different geographical regions, education levels and occupations. 11.7% of the sample population cooked mainly with animal oil, and 33% of the students had ever been to McDonald's. 11.7%, 20.5%, 44.7% and 23.0% of the subjects engaged in sedentary, light, moderate or heavy physical activities respectively. 18.04% of the subjects took part in physical exercises with different proportions by gender, occupation, education and geographical settings. 8.3% people were slim which was defined as having BMI lower than 18.5 kg/m(2). 68.0% of the people had a BMI as 18.5-23.9 kg/m(2). 23.7% of the subjects were being overweight which was defined as having BMI greater than 24 kg/m(2), among which 8.5% people with a BMI of 24-24.9 kg/m(2).

The prevalence of overweight and obesity will increase in the next 20-30 years, with the habits of taking more foods with high fat and energy but with less physical activities and keeping the idea as "fattier makes happier". Priorities should be given to changing the diet habit, avoiding over-intake of high fat and high energy plus increasing physical activities through publicity of knowledge on health, policy enforcement and development of supportive environment.