Determinants of over nutrition in Indian states and select cities

Abstract

Over nutrition i.e. over-weight and obesity is now recognized as a global epidemic and a major health burden due to health costs and its concomitant non-communicable diseases. This is an emerging public health problem in India and Asians are known to face relatively higher risk. Thus the real disease burden is generally under estimated when evaluated at international cut off points. To determine prevalence levels indifferent Indian states and eight select cities and association of various individual, socioeconomic and contextual determinants, the current study using India specific cut off points examines nationally representative NFH3-3 data. Adjusted prevalence indifferent contexts was estimated using cross tabulation. Similarly odds ratios were estimated using multinomial logistic regression models. The malady was found to be much deeply pervasive than what is generally believed, and there are wide variations of it in different states. In as many as eleven states of India the prevalence of over nutrition is more than under nutrition; and southern states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have higher odds of obesity as compared to traditionally known for obesity like Punjab. Some religious communities like Sikhs have higher odds as compared to others, and the same is true about some occupations like sales. The study examines the effect of average neighbourhood BMI and average BMI of household members besides that of the respondents. It finds consistent and high effect of these micro contexts over the problem. The study calls for an urgent policy intervention to raise the priority of addressing the problem on the agenda at different levels. While core issues have to be addressed at national level, the policies also need to be fine-tuned for state specificity for being successful. A lot more state specific research, regarding food habits, physical activity patterns, and social practices is required to address this emerging problem. The study recommends to address the issue fromschool level onwards, and to tap in to the traditional cultural strengths like yoga, fasting-practices, and spiritual undertones to encourage a healthy life for all