Prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity in university students from the region of Anhui (China).
BACKGROUND
Overweight and obesity are epidemic worldwide. Our previous study found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity in primary students is high.


OBJECTIVE
we sought to estimate whether the prevalence of overweight and obesity among university students is still high in China.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was designed to collect the routine health screening data for university students in 2013. The height and weight of students were measured, and BMI was calculated with height and weight, we estimated the underweight and obesity prevalence of university students using by two references [Working Group on Obesity references in China (2004) and World Health Organization (WHO) criteria (2000)].


RESULTS
Depending on the China references used, the overall prevalence of underweight, overweight (including obesity) and obesity in male university students were 14.2%, 14.7% and 4.2%, respectively; in female university students were 27.5%, 4.4% and 0.6%, respectively. Depending on the WHO references used, the overall prevalence of underweight, overweight (including obesity) and obesity in male university students were 14.2%, 11.5% and 2.5%, respectively, in female university students were 27.5%, 2.4% and 0.3%, respectively. An interesting observation made was that the underweight prevalence of university students has an increasing trend, especially in female.


CONCLUSIONS
The study showed that the prevalence of underweight in university students, especially in female students has become a critical health issue. Related department of school and government should pay more attention to student's physical health.
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Xiaohua
X
Ren
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Yan
Y
Chen
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Lianping
L
He
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Yuelong
Y
Jin
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Li
L
Tian
School of Medical Imaging and Inspection, Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Mi
M
Lu
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Wei
W
Lu
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Lingling
L
Ding
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Daoxia
D
Guo
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Linghong
L
Wang
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Zhognhua
Z
Nie
School of Public Health , Wannan Medical College. Wuhu 241002, Anhui, People's Republic of China.. 1983helianping@163.com.
Yingshui
Y
Yao
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012015:Reference Standards; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult