Objective To investigate the medical assistance to inpatients from low-income families for solving their difficulties in seeing doctors and affordability.Methods Random sampling was made to five ongoing medical assistance projects in the hospital for statistics and analysis of the data so collected.Results Medical expenses of such inpatients are beyond their affordability.Despite the coverage of their basic medical insurance,the reimbursement rate is too low to alleviate their financial burden.Conclusion A“4-party payment”model is recommended,combining the government support for basic medical insurance,social welfare assistance,philanthropic assistance and that paid by the inpatients.This model is expected to effectively alleviate the financial burden of such inpatients.

OBJECTIVETo describe gender and regional differences in the prevalence of overweight/obesity in adults found by China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) study, involving 512 489 adults, in 10 areas in China.

METHODSThe baseline survey of CKB was conducted in 5 urban areas and 5 rural areas in China during 2004-2008. After excluding those with extreme value of BMI (<15.0 kg/m(2) or >50 kg/m(2)), 512 489 subjects were included in the analysis. Overweight/obesity was classified according to BMI and WC, and diagnosed according to the guideline for prevention and control of overweight/obesity in Chinese adults. The gender and regional specific distributions of overweight/obesity were compared after adjusting for age.

RESULTSThe overall prevalence of overweight/obesity was higher in females (45.3%) than in males (41.7%), and the prevalence of central obesity was also higher in females (44.6%) than in males (38.3%). Both the prevalence of overweight/obesity (66.9% in males and 67.5% in females) and the central obesity (63.3% in males and 64.9% in females) were highest in Qingdao. The area specific difference in the prevalence was more obvious in males than in females. Rural areas all had the low prevalence except Henan. Moreover, central obesity was diagnosed in some subjects (15.3% in females, 9.8% in males) with normal/low BMI (<24.0 kg/m(2)). This phenomenon was more obvious in Qingdao (22.2% in males and 23.2% in females).

CONCLUSIONThe prevalence of overweight/obesity in adults varied greatly across different areas in China.

Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Geography ; Humans ; Male ; Obesity ; epidemiology ; Obesity, Abdominal ; epidemiology ; Overweight ; epidemiology ; Prevalence ; Rural Population ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population