BEIJING, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A Chinese survey shows up to 75 percent of the country's city-dwellers suffer from poor health, and well-educated people die 10 years earlier than others.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences found the average lifespan of an educated person to be just 58, 10 years lower than the national average.
The survey, carried out in 16 Chinese cities with populations above 1 million, found similar results in all. It found 75.31 percent of people in Beijing in poor health, 73.49 percent in Shanghai and 73.41 percent in southern Guangdong province.
Poor health was defined as reduced energy and poor physical fitness, but no specific disease.
The problem was worst among senior and middle-level managers, clerks and white-collar workers, Xinhua said. Chronic illness had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of premature death, the report said.
"Bad working habits, poor disease prevention, inadequate governmental funding and lack of health education are the main reasons," said Yang Xiaoduo, a healthcare expert who warned China must quickly take steps to solve the problems.
