THE BODY-MASS INDEX OF CHINESE ADULTS IN THE 1980S

Patterns and trends in the body composition of Chinese adults are stud ied with data from the 1982 China Nationwide Nutrition Survey (CNS-82) and the 1989 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS-89). The CNS-82 showed rural inhabitants were approximately 3 kg lighter than urban re sidents and approximately 2.2 cm shorter. Males were heavier (55.2 +/- 7.4 vs 50.7 +/- 8.0 kg) and taller (165.3 +/- 7.3 and 153.5 +/- 6.3 c m). Using a cut-off for underweight of a body mass index (BMI: kg/m2) <18.5 and for obesity of >25, 11.6% and 12.9% of the urban and rural s ample were underweight and 9.8% and 6.9% respectively were overweight. The CHNS-89 surveyed 5138 adults aged 20-45 in eight selected provinc es. The proportion of underweight in both urban and rural samples decl ined slighty (approximately 1.3%) but the proportion of obesity increa sed considerably (4.8% for the urban sample and 2% for the rural one). Increased income was significantly associated with reduced low body m ass index (BMI: kg/m2) in the urban sample while, for the rural and ov erall samples, the opposite was found for obesity. Provincial patterns in energy intake were not associated with the distribution of BMI whi ch occupation was. In particular, government officials and housewives were much more likely to be obese as also were subpopulation groups co nsuming greater proportions of energy from animal sources. Over 80% of the population fell in the normal BMI range (18.5-25). This may relat e to the relatively even distribution of food in China during the past several decades.