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A new study has found that nearly 20 percent of the households in India have overweight adults and 10 per cent have adults classified as obese.

 

The study by researchers from ICMR-National Institute for Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) based on the data from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21) to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults aged 15-54 years revealed that in states such as Manipur, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, over 30 per cent of households had all adults in overweight category. In Tamil Nadu and Punjab, two out of every five households had all adults classified as obese.

 

Among the households belonging to the richest wealth quintile, one in four had all members overweight, and 17.3 per cent had all members classified as obese. The proportion of households with all obese members was about twice as high in urban areas compared to their rural counterparts. Households belonging to Scheduled Tribes had the lowest proportion of households with all members classified as obese, at only 4.2 per cent, while households belonging to forward ('others') social groups recorded the highest proportion, at 12.2 per cent.

 

The study encompassed 636,699 households and 761,885 individuals. Households were categorized based on the presence of overweight or obese members, and multilevel logistic regression was used to evaluate variations at the household, community, district, and regional levels.

 

A person with a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 25-29.9 kg/m²  is classified as overweight while that over 30 kg/m² is considered as obese.

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