The prevalence and characteristics of overweight and central obesity in Hazakh,Uygur and Han population

Objective To explore the prevalence and characteristics of overweight and central obesity among Hazakh,Uygur and Han population aged 30 years and over in Xinjiang.Methods Data of body height,weight and waist circumference(WC)were obtained from a hypertension epidemiological investigation in 2007.A multistage random cluster sampling design was used to select the representative sample of general Hazakhs,Uygur and Han population in Xinjiang Autonomous Region.7 510 residents(men:3 475,women:4 035)aged 30-102 years completed the questionnaire and physical examination.Overweight was defined as body mass index(BMI)≥25 kg/m2,and the criteria of central obesity is:WC≥90 cm for men,WC≥80 cm for women.Statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS statistical software,version 16.0.Results The prevalence of overweight in males and females were 63.83% and 55.67% for Hazakhs,61.33% and 60.77% for Uygur,and 51.79% and 29.53% for Han population.The prevalence rates of central obesity were 46.61%,42.03%,and 42.49% in male Hazakhs,Uygur and Han populations,respectively.And correspondingly,they were 53.43%,64.33% and 36.22% in female Hazakhs,Uygur and Han populations.The prevalence of overweight in three ethnic groups was significantly different in both males and females(P0.001).It was only in the female Han population that the significantly higher prevalence of central obesity than that of overweigh was observed in all groups stratified by age.Interestingly,the same results were detected only in female Uygur and Hazakah population aged over 50 years.Conclusion There was higher prevalence of overweight or central obesity in Hazakhs and Uygur populations than that in Han population.In addition,WC was better than BMI in assessing the obese status of female Han population.