An investigation now under way among 20,000 children in Beijing
shows that the problems of obesity, hypertension and diabetes are
no longer just for adults. More and more children are suffering
from these chronic conditions.
However there are no definitive statistics available to show how
many children are affected. There is also a lack of information on
the diagnoses and prevention of the diseases of obesity among
children. But now Beijing has a project in place to investigate how
these normally adult diseases are affecting the capital's children.
Funds of over 4 million yuan have been allocated for the research
program which is scheduled to run for three years.
Obesity in children has become common in recent years. The
proportion of obese children in Beijing has increased something
like six-fold in 10 years. At the same time, the risks of
hypertension, blood-fat disturbance and hyperinsulinemia
(abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood) have increased
four to twelve-fold. Doctors have been reporting more and more
children suffering from diabetes as the number of obese children
rises.
Doctor Mi Jie who is the director of the Capital Institute of
Pediatrics, is in charge of the investigation. According to Dr Mi
the current focus of childhood disease prevention and control is
largely still on the diseases of the last century such as anemia,
roundworm, dental caries, trachoma and malnutrition.
However, this approach has now fallen somewhat out of step with
current developments and does little to promote the diagnosis and
prevention of obesity in childhood. The children might reap
lifelong health benefits if only they could get the psychological
counseling and lifestyle guidance they need to help them onto the
path of balanced diets and healthy sports together with the
necessary clinical management and follow-up monitoring.
In order to generate fundamental statistical data on sickness
ratios and causes of the diseases, experts from the Capital
Institute of Pediatrics, the Children's Hospital, the Beijing Union
Hospital, the Disease Prevention and Control Center and the
Hospital for Women and Children's Health, will spend three years
investigating obesity, hypertension, diabetes and blood-fat
disturbance in 20,000 children in Beijing. Their research will shed
new light on the diagnosis of the childhood onset of these chronic
conditions, formerly reserved for the adult world.
A recent Diabetic Children's Drawing Competition helped to raise
awareness and provided a forum for the experts to call on the whole
of society to help these children.
Today there are probably more than 40,000 children with diabetes
in Beijing.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan March 29, 2004)