ABSTRACT
RU WANG, DONGMEI LIU, XUEQIANG WANG, WEIHUA XIAO, NANA WU, BINGHONG GAO, AND PEIJIE CHEN
6.1 BACKGROUND
Obesity is a global pandemic and its prevalence among children and adolescents has also increased worldwide, becoming a serious public health problem [1]. In China, nearly 215 million people are overweight or obese, and 12% of these are children (< 17-years-old), as estimated by the 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey [2]. Obesity in childhood has been associated with an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and various cancers in adulthood [3,4]. Therefore, preventing and treating obesity in children and adolescents is crucial.
