62 million people in China obese, sparking fears of 'alarming' financial burden
China has the fourth-greatest increase in childhood obesity
China has the second-largest number of obese people in the world behind only the United States, according to a pioneering study published in a leading international medical journal.
Globally, there are 2.1 billion people classified as overweight or obese. Of that number, 671 million people were classified as obese, according to the report in .
Overweight means that a person has a body mass index - which factors in weight in relation to height - of 25 to less than30. With a BMI of 30 or more, a person is classified as obese.
Childhood obesity in China is another issue that really needs attention
More than half of the world's obese population live in 10 countries, led by the United States with 86.9 million.
Study data showed said there were 62 million obese people living in China last year, or more than 9 per cent of the world's total.
Conducted by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the study, the first of its kind, analysed data from 188 countries over 33 years and found that nearly 30 per cent (2.1 billion) of the world's population were either overweight or obese last year, up from 857 million people in 1980. Over the same period of time, the overweight and obesity rates among adults had increased for both men (to 37 per cent from 29 per cent) and women (to 38 per cent from 30 per cent).
Lead study author Dr Marie Ng, assistant professor of global health at IHME, who had previously worked at Hong Kong University, told the that although the overall prevalence of people being overweight or obese in China was relatively low compared to other countries, the total figure was "alarming" in terms of the consequent financial burden on the health system.
