China Issues First Multidisciplinary Guidelines for Diagnosing and Treating Obesity

Beijing — On Thursday (Oct. 17), China released its first multidisciplinary guidelines for diagnosing and treating obesity. According to the National Health Commission of China, these guidelines emphasize a team-based, multidisciplinary approach aimed at standardizing the diagnosis and treatment of obesity while ensuring the quality and safety of medical care.

The guidelines outline the standards for diagnosing, classifying, and staging obesity. The treatment section covers behavioral, psychological, and physical interventions, medical nutritional therapy, drug treatments, weight loss surgery, and traditional medicine approaches.

China has approved five weight-loss drugs for treating primary obesity in adults but has yet to approve any drugs for treating genetically inherited obesity.

Currently, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is battling obesity, which has become a "sweet burden" of increasing wealth. A 2020 report by the Commission revealed that over half of Chinese adults were overweight or obese, and this figure could rise to 65.3% by 2030.

China has historically struggled to feed its massive population, with malnutrition a common issue in many families before the country's economic reforms in the late 1970s. Obesity has since emerged as an unintended consequence of improved living standards.

Source: Xinhua Thai