scholarly journals Secular change in the association between urbanisation and abdominal adiposity in China (1993–2011)

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 484-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yosuke Inoue ◽  
Annie Green Howard ◽  
Amanda L Thompson ◽  
Penny Gordon-Larsen

BackgroundLittle attention has been paid to how the association between urbanisation and abdominal adiposity changes over the course of economic development in low-income and middle-income countries.MethodsData came from the China Health and Nutrition Survey waves 1993–2011 (seven waves). A mixed linear model was used to investigate the association between community-level urbanisation with waist-to-height ratio (WHtR; an indicator of abdominal adiposity). We incorporated interaction terms between urbanisation and study waves to understand how the association changed over time. The analyses were stratified by age (children vs adults).ResultsAdult WHtR was positively associated with urbanisation in earlier waves but became inversely associated over time. More specifically, a 1 SD increase in the urbanisation index was associated with higher WHtR by 0.002 and 0.005 in waves 1993 and 1997, while it was associated with lower WHtR by 0.001 in 2011. Among child participants, the increase in WHtR over time was predominantly observed in more urbanised communities.ConclusionOur study suggests a shift in adult abdominal adiposity from more urbanised communities to less urbanised communities over a time of rapid economic development in China. Children living in more urbanised communities had higher increase in abdominal obesity with urbanisation over time relative to children living in less urbanised communities.

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2530
Author(s):  
Navika Gangrade ◽  
Janet Figueroa ◽  
Tashara M. Leak

Snacking contributes a significant portion of adolescents’ daily energy intake and is associated with poor overall diet and increased body mass index. Adolescents from low socioeconomic status (SES) households have poorer snacking behaviors than their higher-SES counterparts. However, it is unclear if the types of food/beverages and nutrients consumed during snacking differ by SES among adolescents. Therefore, this study examines SES disparities in the aforementioned snacking characteristics by analyzing the data of 7132 adolescents (12–19 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2018. Results reveal that adolescents from low-income households (poverty-to-income ratio (PIR) ≤ 1.3) have lower odds of consuming the food/beverage categories “Milk and Dairy” (aOR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.58-0.95; p = 0.007) and “Fruits” (aOR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.50–0.78; p = 0.001) as snacks and higher odds of consuming “Beverages” (aOR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.19-1.76; p = 0.001) compared to those from high-income households (PIR > 3.5). Additionally, adolescents from low- and middle-income (PIR > 1.3–3.5) households consume more added sugar (7.98 and 7.78 g vs. 6.66 g; p = 0.012, p = 0.026) and less fiber (0.78 and 0.77 g vs. 0.84 g; p = 0.044, p = 0.019) from snacks compared to their high-income counterparts. Future research is necessary to understand factors that influence snacking among adolescents, and interventions are needed, especially for adolescents from low-SES communities.


Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Xu Tian ◽  
Hui Wang

The growth status and weight status of Chinese children have experienced remarkable changes in the past decades. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, this paper examines the secular trends and disparity of the growth status and weight status in Chinese children and further investigates the impact of various family environments on children’s growth from 1991 to 2011. We found an increasing trend in standardized growth indicators (height, weight, and BMI), overweight, and obesity from 1991 to 2011. We also observed an increasing disparity in overweight and obesity over time. Family environments had a significant impact on children’s growth status and weight status. In particular, children that live in families with a small size, higher family income, better sanitary conditions, and with well-educated parents or overweight parents tended to be taller and heavier and have a higher BMI, lower risk of being underweight, and higher risk of exhibiting overweight and obesity. Further decomposition analysis showed that more than 70% of the disparity in standardized height, weight, and overweight and around 50% of the disparity in standardized BMI, underweight, and obesity could be attributed to heterogeneity in family environments. Moreover, the disparity associated with family environments tended to increase over time.


Author(s):  
Alejandro Mosiño ◽  
Karen P. Villagómez-Estrada ◽  
Alberto Prieto-Patrón

In school age children and adolescents, anemia might cause lower cognitive function and attention span, which in turn could diminish human capital accumulation. As children born in low-income households are more likely to be anemic, this may prevent many individuals from overcoming the intergenerational poverty traps. In this paper, we used data from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 and focused on a sample of adolescents between 12 and 19 years of age to study the relationship between attending school without delay—our proxy for school performance—and anemia. We found a statistically significant association between the two variables. If this relationship is causal, the economic burden linked to the loss of school years could well exceed the costs associated with programs aimed at reducing the prevalence of anemia in vulnerable populations. Our results provide additional support to the existing literature on anemia as a significant barrier to school achievement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinxing Hong

Purpose At present, the Chinese economy has entered the “new normal” phase with the transformation of development stages from the low-income to the middle-income ones. Accordingly, there appear a series of innovations in development theories. Innovations involve creative destructions. Therefore, innovative development theories at the present stage either deny the prevailing principles of development economics, or deny the theories that once effectively guided development at the low-income stage, or even sublate some of the development polices which were propelled and proved effective at the beginning of the reform and opening-up. The fundamental reason is that, as the development stages evolve, there occur new development tasks, new periodical characteristics and new laws of development. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Any development theory from abroad will find it difficult to correctly guide and clarify development problems in a socialist country, such as the huge population and the extreme imbalance between the urban and the rural and among regional developments. Findings In conclusion, China, as a large world economy, has made innovations in its economic development theory, which indicates that it intends to perfect itself rather than seek hegemony. As the world’s second largest economy, China should adapt to the transformation and further free people’s minds instead of adhering to the old patterns of thinking. It should think over the path of development for a great world economy from the historical starting point of a large world economy and find development strategies to transform itself from a large economy to a great economy, so as to realize the dream of the Chinese nation to build a powerful country. Originality/value Only political economy studies both the relations of production and the productive forces, and only a theory combining both can correctly guide China’s economic development, which especially needs to be promoted by taking advantage of socialist economic system. Therefore, the first and foremost principle for a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to insist on liberating and developing productive forces.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-329
Author(s):  
Weixiang Luo ◽  
Yu Xie

Using data from the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Surveys, this paper examines the temporal–spatial variation in the education gradient of body weight relative to height among Chinese adults, and how the variation is associated with levels of economic development. We find different variation patterns for men and women. For women, the education gradient in body weight shifted from being positive to being negative over time for China as a whole, as well as across regions with different levels of economic development. In contrast, for men, higher education remained consistently associated with higher body weight over the 18-year period studied in China as a whole, as well as across regions with different levels of economic development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketevan Rtveladze ◽  
Tim Marsh ◽  
Simon Barquera ◽  
Luz Maria Sanchez Romero ◽  
David Levy ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveAlong with other countries having high and low-to-middle income, Mexico has experienced a substantial change in obesity rates. This rapid growth in obesity prevalence has led to high rates of obesity-related diseases and associated health-care costs.DesignMicro-simulation is used to project future BMI trends. Additionally thirteen BMI-related diseases and health-care costs are estimated. The results are simulated for three hypothetical scenarios: no BMI reduction and BMI reductions of 1 % and 5 % across the population.SettingMexican Health and Nutrition Surveys 1999 and 2000, and Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2006.SubjectsMexican adults.ResultsIn 2010, 32 % of men and 26 % of women were normal weight. By 2050, the proportion of normal weight will decrease to 12 % and 9 % for males and females respectively, and more people will be obese than overweight. It is projected that by 2050 there will be 12 million cumulative incidence cases of diabetes and 8 million cumulative incidence cases of heart disease alone. For the thirteen diseases considered, costs of $US 806 million are estimated for 2010, projected to increase to $US 1·2 billion and $US 1·7 billion in 2030 and 2050 respectively. A 1 % reduction in BMI prevalence could save $US 43 million in health-care costs in 2030 and $US 85 million in 2050.ConclusionsObesity rates are leading to a large health and economic burden. The projected numbers are high and Mexico should implement strong action to tackle obesity. Results presented here will be very helpful in planning and implementing policy interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e003758
Author(s):  
Michelle C Dimitris ◽  
Matthew Gittings ◽  
Nicholas B King

Many have called for greater inclusion of researchers from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the conduct of global health research, yet the extent to which this occurs is unclear. Prior studies are journal-, subject-, or region-specific, largely rely on manual review, and yield varying estimates not amenable to broad evaluation of the literature. We conducted a large-scale investigation of the contribution of LMIC-affiliated researchers to published global health research and examined whether this contribution differed over time. We searched titles, abstracts, and keywords for the names of countries ever classified as low-, lower middle-, or upper middle-income by the World Bank, and limited our search to items published from 2000 to 2017 in health science-related journals. Publication metadata were obtained from Elsevier/Scopus and analysed in statistical software. We calculated proportions of publications with any, first, and last authors affiliated with any LMIC as well as the same LMIC(s) identified in the title/abstract/keywords, and stratified analyses by year, country, and countries’ most common income status. We analysed 786 779 publications and found that 86.0% included at least one LMIC-affiliated author, while 77.2% and 71.2% had an LMIC-affiliated first or last author, respectively; however, analagous proportions were only 58.7%, 36.8%, and 29.1% among 100 687 publications about low-income countries. Proportions of publications with LMIC-affiliated authors increased over time, yet this observation was driven by high research activity and representation among upper middle-income countries. Between-country variation in representation was observed, even within income status categories. We invite comment regarding these findings, particularly from voices underrepresented in this field.


Author(s):  
Graziella Caselli ◽  
Sven Drefahl

This chapter provides an overview of past and expected future trends in life expectancy in populations with low levels of mortality. High and low mortality populations were separated on the basis of the level of child mortality in the year 2010 according to the revised estimates of the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (2011), with the threshold being 40 deaths per 1,000 children below the age of 5 years. The low mortality population is comprised of 132 countries including Europe, North America, most of Oceania and Latin America, large parts of Asia (excluding the high mortality area in Central and Southern Asia), and Northern Africa. The populations of these countries are already engaged in an advanced phase of the demographic and ‘epidemiologic transition’. Because they previously experienced strong decreases in infant mortality, the future mortality trends are driven mainly by mortality in adult ages, primarily the old and oldest-old. Although the data sources on which the existing estimates of life expectancy for these populations are based vary considerably (owing to differences in the death registration systems and the estimation techniques, see, e.g., Luy, 2010), we have relatively good knowledge of past and current mortality levels and trends and their causes. Despite the similar general trends, today’s low mortality countries are very heterogeneous in various aspects, including medical standards, access to health care, and behavioural risk factors, such as smoking prevalence. These diversities are strongly related to the populations’ stages of economic development and contribute to a broad variance of life expectancy levels. Among men, life expectancy at birth for the years 2005–10 ranges between 60.2 in Kazakhstan and 79.5 in Iceland. Among women, the range is between 67.8 in the Solomon Islands and 86.1 in Japan. To demonstrate this relationship between economic development and life expectancy we classified countries according to their current per capita income as an indicator of the economic development level of the populations. We used the World Bank classification, which groups countries into high income (≥$12,276 annually), upper middle income ($3,976–$12,275), lower middle income ($1,006–$3,975), and low income (≤$1,005).


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 684-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Yang ◽  
Xue Hong ◽  
James G. Gurney ◽  
Youfa Wang

Background:Active travel to school (ATS) is positively associated with various health indicators. The rapid social, economic, and environmental changes in China provide a unique setting to study changes and predictors of ATS over time.Methods:Using logistic regression modeling, we analyzed data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey during 1997 to 2011 (N = 9487, ages 6 to 17 years) to estimate the change over time in ATS and to identify associated factors.Results:The prevalence of reported ATS among children dropped from 95.8% in 1997 to 69.3% in 2011. ATS was common in children living closer to school, in middle school, from low-income households, with low parental education status, and those without a private vehicle. Children who were living in a metropolitan area and who had more than 40 minutes of total PA per day were less likely to report ATS.Conclusions:The decrease of ATS had been concurrent with the increase of the children living at a longer distance from school and the increase of household owning private vehicles which were associated with the rapid urbanization and economic growth in China. Factors associated with the decreased ATS in China are similar to other countries but the underlying reasons may be different.


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