OBJECTIVETo study the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular risk factors among Chinese adult population.

METHODS98 271 subjects aged 18 years or over were recruited from 162 surveillance points around 31 provinces in China's mainland in 2010, under a complex multistage stratified sampling method. The survey included face-to-face interview, physical measurement and laboratory testing, to collect information related to the prevalence of risk factors as smoking, drinking, diet and physical activities as well as the prevalence of main chronic disease as hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia. 24 kg/m(2)≤BMI<28 kg/m(2) was defined as overweight and BMI≥28 kg/m(2) was defined as obese. After a complex weighting on the sample, level and proportion of cardiovascular risk factors in groups of different BMI were analyzed.

RESULTSThe overall prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were 30.6% (95%CI:29.5%-31.7%) and 12.0% (95%CI:11.0%-12.9%) and were significantly higher in men for overweight (χ(2) = 16.09, P < 0.001) and those aged 45-65 years old for both overweight and obesity (χ(2) values were 485.17 and 112.23 both P < 0.001), respectively. The levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and fasting blood insulin (FBI) showed a significantly increase on BMI and were seen higher in overweight (F values were 4 056.19, 6 860.70, 3 898.91, 1 624.73, 2 337.21, 2 558.01, 1 049.01 and 1 665.52, with both Ps< 0.001)respectively and obese participants (F values were 5 628.68, 9 949.81, 5 508.77, 1 656.34, 2 452.05, 2 365.92, 1 441.72 and 6 081.27, respectively; all Ps<0.001). The prevalence rates of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, insulin resistance and clustering of cardiovascular disease showed a significantly increase on BMI and were higher in overweight (χ(2) values were 704.70, 521.86, 431.35, 449.13 and 686.83, both Ps<0.001), and obese participants (χ(2) values were 113.45, 645.03, 1 063.30, 1 547.86 and 1 909.66, both Ps<0.001), respectively. After adjustment for age and gender, participants with 24 kg/m(2) ≤BMI<28 kg/m(2) and BMI≥28 kg/m(2) increased the risks of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, insulin resistance and clustering of cardiovascular disease by 2.5/5.5, 2.2/3.4, 1.8/2.9, 2.9/8.2 and 3.3/8.9 times than participants with BMI<28 kg/m(2), respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe risk of cardiovascular disease parallelly increased with BMI among Chinese adults. Rational control on BMI should be viewed as priority on chronic disease prevention and control.