Up to 75 percent of all urban Chinese suffer from ill health, and life expectancies are declining for skilled and educated workers, according to a study by the Chinese Red Cross.
A survey of 16 Chinese cities with populations over 1 million by the Red Cross Society of China found that 75 percent of Beijing residents were in poor health, along with 73 percent of those in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.
The findings illustrate a darker side of China's economic success story -- deteriorating public health and a decline in well-being for many Chinese, even in the country's richest cities.
The Red Cross study defined poor health as illness causing reduced levels of energy and fitness but with no specific diagnosis of a disease.
The problem was worst among senior and midlevel managers and well-educated white collar workers, the report said.
"Bad working habits, poor disease prevention, inadequate government funding and lack of health education are the main reasons," it quoted Yang Xiaoduo, a health care expert, as saying.
Death rates among the elite are rising, largely due to poor health habits, lack of exercise and stress.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences reports that the average life span of an educated person was 58, more than 10 years lower than the national average of 72 years.
A separate study found that among the 380,000 information technology professionals working in Zhongguancun -- Beijing's equivalent of Silicon Valley -- the average life expectancy was only 53 years -- five years less than a decade ago, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.
Xinhua cited rising rates of lung cancer, cardiovascular ill-ness, respiratory illness and strokes.
Economic losses from disease are as high as 400 billion yuan (US$170 billion) a year, the Shanghai Daily said, citing government figures.
Various trends are contributing to the problem.
Urban Chinese are getting fat-ter as they switch from diets heavy in vegetables and staple grains to much higher consumption of fats, meats and sugar.
Physical labor has given way to more sedentary work, and stress levels are rising as workers lose cradle-to-grave employment and struggle to make ends meet in a competitive job market.
Meanwhile, China's industrial boom and soaring vehicle use have contributed to severe air and water pollution in many cities.
The cities are also aging quickly, raising the percentage of people more likely to be suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart problems.
In Shanghai, 19 percent of the population is over 60 years old. However, by 2030, half the population will be at least 65, the government recently reported.
The government once touted the country's broad provision of basic services, such as medical care and education, as obvious benefits of Communist Party rule. But for many, those services have been dismantled.
Farm families in the countryside can no longer count on the so-called "barefoot doctors" for basic health services. And although city dwellers have access to the country's best medical facilities, the lack of a comprehensive health insurance system means that many cannot afford medical care.
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