China’s National Health Commission has released its first set of guidelines to standardise the diagnosis and treatment of obesity.
Over the past years, China has witnessed an upward trend in the morbidity rate of its overweight and obese population, according to the guidelines issued by the commission.
As an independent disease and a major causative factor for multiple chronic diseases, obesity has become a major public health issue in China, it said.
It is ranked as the sixth leading risk factor for death and disability in the country, the guidelines added.
They provide detailed guidance and regulations in clinical nutrition, medication therapy, surgical treatment, and behavioural and psychological intervention.
Other regulations include exercise intervention for obesity, ensuring the safety and quality of medical care while protecting the health rights of patients, said Zhang Zhongtao, director of the guideline drafting committee.
Experts emphasise that most overweight and obese cases are caused by unhealthy lifestyles.
The fundamental solution is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which includes a balanced diet and appropriate exercise to keep weight within the limit.
On Thursday China unveiled its first guidelines for the multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment of obesity.
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Emphasizing a multidisciplinary team-based approach, the guidelines were released to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of the condition and to ensure the quality and safety of medical care, said the National Health Commission, which led the formulation of the document.
The guidelines address the diagnosis standards, classification and staging of obesity. Its treatment section includes methods for behavioral, psychological and sports-based interventions, medical nutrition therapy, medication treatments, weight-loss and metabolic surgery, as well as approaches from traditional medicine.
The guidelines noted that five medications have been approved in China for weight-loss treatment in adults with primary obesity. No medications have been approved for the treatment of inherited obesity in China.
The second-largest economy is combating obesity, largely a “sweet burden” of affluence. More than half of adults in the country are overweight or obese, and the rate could reach 65.3 percent by 2030, according to a 2020 report from the NHC.
China had struggled for centuries to feed its vast population. And undernourishment was a genuine concern for many families before the reform and opening-up started in the late 1970s. Obesity has emerged as an unintended consequence of improving living standards in the country.
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