Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence rate of abdominal obesity and to explore the associated risk factors in rural communities from Hanzhong area, Shaanxi province, and to provide baseline data for further targeted intervention programs.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among all the participants with questionnaires, interview and physical examination. Nine townships were selected in Hanzhong area, followed by one village randomly chosen from the selected township, using the stratified random sampling method.
Results: There were 3030 participants in this survey, among which 3021 samples were valid, including 1048 males and 1973 females. The overall prevalence rate of abdominal obesity was 38.9% (standardized rate as 33.4%) in rural communities of Hanzhong, and the prevalence rate on males abdominal obesity (35.0%) was significantly lower than that of females (40.9%). It was found that following factors as: being male, married, having more household wealth, frequent consumption of fried food, non-engagement of agricultural labor work, being nonsmoker or ex-smoker, spending longer time on watching-TV etc. were positively associated with the bigger odds of having abdominal obesity when using the logistic regression analysis. Meanwhile, data from this study indicated that factors as: at younger age, frequent participation in agricultural labor, under artificial feeding, with more years of education, less frequency of pregnancy etc. were negatively related to the prevalence of female abdominal obesity.
Conclusion: The prevalence rate of abdominal obesity in Hanzhong area, Shaanxi province was significantly higher than the national average level which called for the development of related intervention programs to prevent chronic diseases associated with gender related-obesity in Hanzhong.