Overweight Perception: Associations with Weight Control Goals, Attempts, and Practices among Chinese Female College Students.

BACKGROUND: Concurrent with the dramatic cultural and economic shifts occurring as mainland China becomes increasingly "Westernized," the weight perceptions, ideal body weight, and weight management goals and practices of Chinese females have also undergone significant changes. OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationships between overweight status, weight perception patterns, and weight management goals and practices in Chinese female college students. DESIGN/PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted with data from 902 female subjects aged 18 to 25 years participating in the China Seven Cities Study, a health promotion and smoking prevention study conducted in mainland China in 2003. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES/STATISTICAL ANALYSES: Logistic regression models were used to explore associations between overweight status, weight perception, specific weight management goals and practices, and current levels of vigorous-intensity physical activity and food consumption. RESULTS: Based on World Health Organization standards for Asian adults, 16.7% of college females were overweight or obese, although 50.8% considered themselves to be "too heavy." Among participants perceiving themselves as overweight (n=458), 69.2% (n=371) were inaccurate and did not meet criteria for overweight or obese. The percentage of participants attempting weight loss was 48.2%, and 33.1% wanted to maintain their current weight. Attempts to lose or maintain weight were related to actual and perceived weight status, but not to increased vigorous-intensity physical activity or fruit and vegetable intake, nor to decreased consumption of sweets, soda, Western fast foods, and fried foods. Only 21.5% of participants desiring weight loss or maintenance reported using a combination of vigorous-intensity physical activity and a reduced-fat and -calorie diet, whereas 20.2% tried extreme methods such as fasting, using diet pills, vomiting, or smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the need to promote healthy weight management practices among Chinese female college students, with an emphasis on diet and physical activity strategies that encourage balance rather than extremes.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Effects of Socioeconomic Factors, Foreign Media, and Attitude toward Appearance on General and Central Adiposity in Chinese Adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: This paper explores the longitudinal effects of socioeconomic factors (i.e., parent education and family income level), foreign media, and attitude toward appearance on general and central adiposity among Chinese adolescents. METHOD: A longitudinal analysis was performed using data from the China Seven Cities Study, a health promotion and smoking prevention study conducted in seven cities across Mainland China between 2002 and 2005. Participants included 5,020 middle and high school students and their parents. Explanatory variables included foreign media exposure, attitude toward appearance, parent education, and family income. Three-level, random-effect models were used to predict general adiposity (i.e., body mass index) and central adiposity (i.e., waist circumference). The Generalized Estimating Equation approach was utilized to determine the effect of explanatory variables on overweight status. RESULTS: Among girls, foreign media exposure was significantly negatively associated with general adiposity over time (ß=-0.06, p=0.01 for middle school girls; ß=-0.06, p=0.03 for high school girls). Attitude toward appearance was associated with lesser odds of being overweight, particularly among high school girls (OR=0.86, p<0.01). Among boys, parental education was significantly positively associated with general adiposity (ß=0.62, p<0.01 for middle school boys; ß=0.37, p=0.02 for high school boys) and associated with greater odds of being overweight (OR=1.55, p<0.01 for middle school boys; OR=1.26, p=0.04 for high school boys). Across all gender and grade levels, family income was significantly negatively associated with central adiposity over time. CONCLUSION: Interventions addressing Chinese adolescent overweight/obesity should consider these factors as potential focus areas.