China, the world's most populous country is also home to some 18 million obese adults and 137 million overweight people, exposing them to greater risks of cardiovascular diseases.
The figures are extrapolated from an in-depth survey of nearly 19,000 people aged 35 to 74, randomly selected from 20 rural and urban areas in China.
The volunteers were weighed and their blood monitored for pressure, glucose and cholesterol, the results of the study published in The Lancet says.
Extrapolated for the country's population of 1.3 billion, the results indicate that 137 million Chinese are overweight, and 18 million of them are obese and at risk of cardiovascular disease because of poor dietary
Around 64 million Chinese adults have "metabolic syndrome," a term applying to overweight, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels that are known risk factors for heart attacks and artery disease.
The study, led by He Jiang, a professor of epidemiology at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, is the latest piece of evidence to attest to obesity problems in China.
The new research highlighted significant differences in China between regions and the sexes. Overweight and metabolic syndrome were higher in northern China than in the south, among urban residents rather than country-dwellers and among women more than among men, the study said.
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