Urban-rural disparity of overweight/obesity distribution and its potential trend with breast cancer among Chinese women

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the urban-rural disparity of overweight/obesity and explore its potential trend with breast cancer among Chinese women. RESULTS The prevalence of overweight/obesity for Chinese rural women (35.2%, 29.2% for overweight and 6.0% for obesity) was significantly higher than that for Chinese urban women (33.4%, 27.7% for overweight and 5.7% for obesity) (P < 0.001). For either rural or urban women, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was highest in north region, followed by east region for rural women and north-east region for urban women. For rural women, higher prevalence of overweight/obesity was significantly positively associated with elder age, Han nationality, low level of education, no occupation, high family income, less number of family residents, insurance, and elder age at marriage. Similar positive associations were also found for urban women, except negative associations for high family income, less number of family residents, and elder age at marriage. A non-significant positive trend between overweight/obesity and breast cancer was found for rural women [odds ratio (OR): 1.06; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.87-1.29], but a significant positive trend for urban women (OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.19-2.02). MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 1 210 762 participants were recruited from the Chinese National Breast Cancer Screening Program. Overweight and obesity were defined as body mass index (BMI) ranged 24.0-27.9 kg/m2 and BMI ≥ 28.0kg/m2, respectively. CONCLUSIONS There was an obvious urban-rural disparity of overweight/obesity distribution among Chinese women, which could also lead to an obvious disparity of breast cancer distribution.