On the afternoon of May 17, the press conference of the National Youth Health Care Forum and Youth Weight Health Research Blue Book was held in Guangzhou, releasing the first in-depth survey report on the weight and physical and mental health index of Chinese adolescents.
The event was jointly sponsored by the Institute of Public Policy and Law of Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangdong Green Thin Charity Foundation. Guo Haoyan, Deputy Director of the Center for Policy Research and Health Communication of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Li Yanlin, vice president of the Guangzhou Women's Federation; Xie Changxian, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Hope Project Office and deputy Secretary General of the Guangdong Youth Development Foundation; Professor Fang Xiangxing, member of the Chinese Medical Anthropology Society, Deputy director of the Department of Sociology and Social Work of Sun Yat-sen University, major decision-making expert of Guangzhou Municipal Government, Miss Wang, president of the Green Thin Charity Foundation of Guangdong Province, senior media writer Li Haihua and other guests attended. Together, they made keynote reports and thought debates on overweight and obesity of Chinese adolescents and their physical and mental effects. Actively called on the society and family to pay attention to the weight problem of teenagers and explore solutions, and formed a consensus of "cultivate their good living habits".
Fifty-two percent of obese teens felt dissatisfied with themselves
The survey was conducted among teenagers aged between 10 and 14. Fifty-two percent of obese teens reported feeling dissatisfied with themselves, and 12 percent said their biggest wish for the future was to lose weight. Ten percent of teenagers eat a lot of meals because of excessive pressure, while 21.8% do not do sports, hate sports, 29.1% rarely do exercise. As obesity also leads to abnormal mental state of adolescents, 32.7% of obese adolescents have difficulties because of their overweight and obesity.
In the absence of effective policy interventions, 268 million people aged five to 17 will be overweight globally by 2025, according to the latest assessment by the World Obesity Federation in 2016. Obesity has become a global problem.
Miss Wang, the president of Green Thin Charity Foundation, said that the foundation focuses on adolescents. This "National Youth Weight Management Research" jointly conducted with the Institute of Public Policy and Law of Sun Yat-sen University hopes to deeply analyze the root causes of adolescent obesity and its effects on physical health, psychological status and social relations. To provide accurate data support for the foundation's public welfare projects.
Guo Haoyan, deputy director of the Center for Policy Research and Health Communication at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), praised the significance of the conference. She analyzed the severity of the obesity problem from the perspective of dietary structure. She highly summarizes the problem of adolescent obesity as "eating more and moving less." "Our residents have too much fat in their diets," she said. "It's over 30 percent, and 72 percent of obese adolescents have at least one obese parent." According to a new report on childhood obesity in China, 34.96 million school children over the age of seven are overweight or obese, which adds up to nearly 40 million. She recommends weight management through a healthy lifestyle, more aerobic activity and moderate to vigorous exercise, as well as counseling for obese teens.
Professor Fang Xiangxing, a major decision-making expert of Guangzhou Municipal Government, found that the change of ideas and living habits had a great influence on teenagers by comparing the eating patterns of teenagers in China and abroad with those in ancient and modern times. She believes that China's youth obesity problem, in fact, with their current eating habits, and the traditional Chinese culture of health-focused eating habits have a lot to do with the breakdown. In particular, urban teenagers consume a lot of fat, high-sugar, high-calorie products, and rural teenagers eat more junk food. She points out that in addition to psychological problems, adolescent obesity is also a feature of social class, and those who successfully control their weight are less likely to suffer from obesity.
Later, Zhou Runan, the research leader and associate professor at the School of Communication and Medicine of Sun Yat-sen University, published and interpreted the Blue Book of the National Adolescent Weight Management Research. According to Zhou Runan, the research was guided by the Policy and Health Communication Center of China CDC and the Chinese Society of Medical Anthropology. In-depth interviews were conducted on 300 overweight and obese adolescents in 10 first - and second-tier cities in China. Combined with the authoritative data of relevant departments and the comprehensive analysis of the Internet big data, the first national adolescent weight management report was formed.
Zhou Runan pointed out in particular, affected by obesity, nearly half of the young people's physical function decline, psychological also affected by varying degrees, especially in the confidence of the blow to self-dissatisfaction. In the investigation, a girl in a key middle school in Guangzhou even had the idea of committing suicide. Secondly, some parents also reported that the fatter the child, the more difficult it is to concentrate, and continued obesity may affect academic performance or intellectual development.
Zhou concluded that the problem of youth obesity is not just a problem of individuals or families, but a problem of the whole society. To solve this problem, we should start from the family, school, enterprises, media and other aspects, strive to create a healthy diet, love sports environment for young people, cultivate children's attention to health, encourage them to be the master of their own body, help them to develop good living habits.
Round table discussion, ten consensus to clear the future direction
At the roundtable forum, Yuan Yanfei, Assistant researcher of the Center for Policy Research and Health Communication of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Zhuang Bi, professor of Physical Education and Research of the Teaching and Research Office of the Education Department of Guangdong Province, Guo Yuan, Vice president of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Organizations and Vice President of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Organizations, MissWang, President of the Green Thin Foundation, Dr. Zhou Runan, associate professor of the School of Communication and Medicine of Sun Yat-sen University, Dr. Yan Feng, an expert in nutrition, Dr. Li Haihua, a senior journalist, and other guests actively offered suggestions to explore solutions to this problem.
Zhuang explained through policies and some practical cases that Guangdong province noticed the problem of youth obesity early on, and issued relevant documents requiring sports activities especially for young people. The overall promotion effect has been good. For more than ten years, the proportion of overweight young students in Guangdong is about 9%, far lower than 1/3 in the United States. In 2009, Zhuang Bi followed up the health monitoring of more than 40 obese students in a junior middle school. He controlled the diet and exercise. After a week, each student lost an average of 2 kilograms. It turns out that parents love their children, afraid of hunger, to eat high-calorie food on weekends. Because, he believes, parental support is important.
During the discussion, Yan pointed out that both environmental and genetic factors are crucial to adolescent obesity, and nutrition is the biggest environmental factor. In addition to unbalanced diet, excess energy, picky eating, partial eating, and low vitamin d can also lead to obesity. She also agrees that weight control requires social environment, family involvement and school support.
Miss Wang shared a story about a friend who lost weight through control, but her son's obesity problem became more and more serious because he loved fried food and carbonated drinks and did not exercise. She said that this is also one of the driving forces for her to make the Green Thin Charity Foundation bigger and stronger. The foundation will gradually carry out public welfare programs on weight management for teenagers in several provinces and cities in China within three to five years. She suggested mobilizing efforts to encourage the relevant authorities to consider restrictions on the advertising and marketing of unhealthy foods in the formulation of policies. Schools can increase youth activity time by incorporating nutrition or exercise instruction into the curriculum. The media should promote the concept of healthy diet and exercise, spread the correct diet knowledge of teenagers, reverse the atmosphere of discrimination against obese people in society, and help the public establish a sound concept of health.
Li Haihua, a senior media writer, pointed out in the discussion that it is very important for young people, as parents and teachers, to listen to their voice and appeals when promoting adolescent health or weight management, so as to let them know what they want. Then, as parents and teachers, they can do something for them.
When answering questions from the media, Yan Feng said that losing weight or losing weight is not equal to losing weight completely, because the main percentage of body fat is lost. If you lose weight improperly and lose weight or minerals, the first one is easy to rebound. Finally, when the proportion of body weight is reduced, the basic metabolism will be down, and the basic metabolism will return to the original diet. It may bounce back soon. Diet control, exercise support, and psychological and behavioral interventions are important.
After nearly an hour of roundtable discussion, representatives from various parties agreed that in order to make Chinese teenagers slim down, it is not only necessary to correct parents' wrong idea that children should eat more when they grow up, but also to guide parents to establish a scientific concept of diet. More importantly, it is necessary to create a healthy lifestyle atmosphere in the whole society. The causes of youth obesity are varied, and tackling it is not an individual or family issue. It is not just a health issue. It is a social issue. Therefore, the participants jointly put forward the constructive suggestions of "social governance" and put forward ten key words: care, planning, knowledge, education, science, encouragement, responsibility, nutrition, health and communication. At the release of the "consensus" ceremony, representatives from the government, academic institutions, public welfare organizations, medical institutions, media and enterprises from all walks of life held keywords in their respective fields and jointly created a blue book symbolizing social governance.
Green thin actively fulfill the social responsibility of "healthy China"
As the organizer of this event, Guangdong Green Thin Charity Foundation found that there are more and more overweight teenagers in China, but there are few organizations that can provide effective help to this population. Therefore, it launched the Green Thin Youth weight Management project, which plans to advocate scientific weight management concept and methodology through schools and communities, and provide online public welfare courses and services. To help overweight and obese adolescents in China with weight management.
Miss Wang, president of the Green Thin Foundation, said in an interview: "As the leading brand of comprehensive weight management services in China, the charity foundation of Green Thin Group has always paid much attention to the health and future of vulnerable groups and special children. In the past, we paid more attention to the improvement of nutrition and health of children in poor mountainous areas, so that children who do not have enough to eat can gain weight. However, the harm and influence of overweight young people in urban areas cannot be ignored. It will be an important social responsibility of Green Thin Charity Foundation to call for and help teenagers to carry out scientific and healthy weight management. We hope to connect various forces to jointly promote the development of weight management programs for teenagers in the future, and jointly contribute to the realization of the goal of 'healthy China'."
He Xuefeng, founder of Renren Charity, expressed strong support. He pointed out that the essence of competition between countries is a competition between teenagers. If the overweight problem of teenagers is not solved, how can such Chinese teenagers win when they should be growing and blossoming, but suffer from low self-esteem due to obesity or other diseases? The National Youth Health Care Forum was successfully held, and the youth weight management survey report was officially released, hoping that parents, schools and people from all walks of life can realize the seriousness of this problem and participate in this youth public welfare cause.
