~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam to conduct first national survey on obesity

Vietnam will soon conduct its first national survey on obesity to help develop a strategy to combat the growing number of people who are becoming overweight as the communist country becomes more prosperous, an official said Saturday. The survey, expected to be launched in September, will be conducted in cities throughout the country where obesity has been increasing rapidly, said Nguyen Thi Lam, deputy director of the National Institute of Nutrition.

"Through the survey, we will obtain basic data to establish an intervention strategy," she said. Obesity is much less a problem in rural areas where more than 70 percent of Vietnam's 82 million live, she said. People living in the countryside tend to be poorer, work harder manual labor jobs, and eat a less balanced diet than those in cities, she said. Lam said the country has conducted several smaller surveys on obesity in some districts in Hanoi and the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the past.

The communist country has recorded a growth rate of more than 7 percent per year since it began moving toward a market economy in the mid 1980s. People's living standards have greatly improved as a result.

The Associated Press - May 14, 2005.