Association of Obesity and Hypertension: A Cohort Study in China

The prevalence of general and central obesity has increased rapidly in China for decades, while little is known on obesity-normal weight-central obesity (NWCO) in China. In this study, we aim to depict the trend of the three kinds of obesity and to explore their associations with hypertension in a cohort study in China. We used data from eight waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2015 for analysis. The Cochran–Armitage test was used for trend of the three kinds of obesity or hypertension. Mixed logistic regression was used to explore their relationship. In this study, we found the prevalence of general obesity increased from 20.81% in 1993 to 50.57% in 2015 in China, which was from 19.23% to 56.15% for central obesity and from 27.20% to 49.07% for NWCO, respectively. Males had the highest increase among all the subgroups. The RR for hypertension and general obesity was 3.71 (95%CI: 3.26–4.22), 3.62 (95%CI 3.19–4.12) for central obesity, and 1.60 (95%CI 1.23–2.06) for NWCO after adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking, alcohol drinking, marriage status, urbanicity and income. Both prevalence of obesity and hypertension have increased significantly in China for the two decades. The general obesity was most likely to develop hypertension compared to central or NOCWO in this study.