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Hong Kong men are getting fatter and carry a higher risk of falling victim to cardiovascular diseases, a Hospital Authority survey has found.

At the same time, the authority revealed, the hospital admission and death rate from serious diseases have increased rapidly in the past 10 years.

The admission rate for heart disease increased 129 per cent between 1991 and 2000, while the death rate from diabetes rose 206.3 per cent.

The survey involved health checks of 2,909 women and 2,623 men from the working class and was conducted between November 2000 to May this year.

Of the men, 35 per cent had general obesity, which is higher than the standard body mass index of 25kg per square metre. A further 26.4 per cent had central obesity, with a waistline exceeding 91cm.

A similar survey by Chinese University in 1992 found that only 11.8 per cent of 909 males polled had large waistlines.

The latest survey also found that the health of people with general obesity and those with both general and central obesity was poorer than people of normal weight.

Obese people tended to suffer more from hypertension, high cholesterol levels and hyperglycaemai (diabetic condition). The potential risk of cardiovascular diseases was much higher in this bracket.

People with general and central obesity who had two or more risk factors were six times more prone to cardiovascular diseases, the survey found. In comparison, overseas data showed overweight people with two or more high-risk factors were two to three times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases than a healthy person, the Hospital Authority said.

Ko Tin-choi, of the Hospital Authority's Health InfoWorld, said people with large waistlines carried a much higher risk than those with general obesity.

'If you are fat on the belly, decomposition [of fat] will be quicker,' he said. 'During the decomposition process, a substance will be produced which will go into the blood and circulate to various organs such as liver and muscles.

'Such organs will lose their sensitivity to insulin as a result. More cholesterol will be produced in the liver and there will be higher blood-sugar levels, leading to high blood pressure and diabetes.

'Such diseases added together over the years will contribute to cardiovascular diseases.'



Death rate from cardiovascular diseases soars as HK men get fatter