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China Consumer Behavior Trend Watching

Living in China: Obesity in China is a growing epidemic

Twenty-five years after China opened up to the west the Chinese are paying a price. Rapid social and economic change is transforming China, with enormous implications for its population and economy. Today the country has the fastest-growing obesity rate in the world and more than a fifth of China’s adult population is overweight, related to changing dietary and physical activity patterns. Overweight and poor diets are becoming a greater burden for the poor than for the rich, with subsequent large increases in hypertension, stroke, and adult-onset diabetes. The related economic costs represent 4–8 percent of the economy.

Twenty-five years after China opened up to the west the Chinese are paying a price. Rapid social and economic change is transforming China, with enormous implications for its population and economy. Today the country has the fastest-growing obesity rate in the world and more than a fifth of China’s adult population is overweight, related to changing dietary and physical activity patterns.

Overweight and poor diets are becoming a greater burden for the poor than for the rich, with subsequent large increases in hypertension, stroke, and adult-onset diabetes. The related economic costs represent 4–8 percent of the economy. Public investments are needed to head off a huge increase in the morbidity, disability, absenteeism, and medical care costs linked with this nutritional shift.

Watch the report (from France24):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=f2zn4gcBzTs

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP, where he leads the design vision for the entire Human Capital Management product line, ensuring cohesive product narratives and establishing best practices.

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. Itamar has also served as a juror for prestigious design competitions and lectured on design topics at universities worldwide.

During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

One reply on “Living in China: Obesity in China is a growing epidemic”

[…] [Technorati] Tag results for behavior health wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Twenty-five years after China opened up to the west the Chinese are paying a price. Rapid social and economic change is transforming China, with enormous implications for its population and economy. Today the country has the fastest-growing obesity rate in the world and more than a fifth of China’s adult population is overweight, related to changing dietary and physical activity patterns. Overweight and poor diets are becoming a greater burden for the poor than for the rich, with subsequent la […]

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