Obesity statistics for India: Obesity rising; 20 % school kids are overweight-Obesity statistics for India:July 15, 2010,

Obesity statistics for India: Obesity rising; 20 % school kids are overweight


Thursday, July 15, 2010, 19:54

As many as 30 million Indians are overweight, and obesity continues rise, says statistics revealed by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.

Around 20 per cent of school-going children are overweight,as the prevalence of obesity is increasing in epidemic proportions worldwide especially in developed countries, and the problem in India is also increasing, the survey said.

Overweight or obesity is the leading cause of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, various types of cancers in women like breast cancer and uterus cancer, menstrual disorder and infertility and many more diseases, according to experts.

A recent study conducted by Aventis Pharma Ltd found that 21% of Delhiites suffer from both diabetes and hypertension leading to a possible twin epidemic.

Of the diabetic population in New Delhi already aware of their condition, almost two-of-every-three (62%) had ‘uncontrolled’ diabetes with their Hba1c levels more than 7% and of the hypertensive population three-out-of-four were uncontrolled.

Almost half the population tested in the New Delhi region has uncontrolled levels of lipids (dyslipidemia) as compared to about one-fifth of the Maharashtra population.

Cardiovascular death rates are high and appear to be climbing in countries like India where diabetes is highly prevalent.

In India, in the past five decades, rates of coronary disease among urban population have risen from 4% to 11%.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 60% of the world’s cardiac patients will be Indians by 2010. With the rising tide of diabetes in India, the double jeopardy of diabetes and hypertension is set to result in an explosion of cardiovascular and other complications – unless preventive action is taken now, alerts the Sanofi study.

Indian health authorities have decided to launch a programme to screen over seven crore adult population in the age group of 30 years & above for diabetes and hypertension, as a measure to prevent the diseases through early diagnosis and treatment at early stages.

Early screening and prevention of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) including diabetes and stroke is part of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).

The Centre has already earmarked an outlay of Rs 1230.90 crore for the programme.

The health authorities aim opportunistic and targeted screening, diagnosis and management of NCDs.

Through successfully implementing the programme, the health authorities expect to achieve behaviour change in the community to adopt healthy life styles including dietary patterns, enhanced physical activity and reduced intake of tobacco and alcohol resulting in overall reduction in the risk factors of common NCDs in the community.

The programme will be implemented in 20,000 sub-centres and 700 community health centres (CHCs) in 100 districts across 15 states/UTs by promoting healthy lifestyle through massive health education and mass media efforts at country level, opportunistic screening of persons above the age of 30 years, establishment of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) clinics at CHC and district level, development of trained manpower and strengthening of tertiary level health facilities.

So far, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has conducted three rounds of the survey since the first survey in 1992-93.

The NFHS survey provides state and national information for India on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, utilization and quality of health and family planning services.

Each successive round of the NFHS has had two specific goals: a) to provide essential data on health and family welfare needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes, and b) to provide information on important emerging health and family welfare issues. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, designated the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS)

Mumbai, as the nodal agency, responsible for providing coordination and technical guidance for the survey. IIPS collaborated with a number of Field Organizations (FO) for survey implementation. Each FO was responsible for conducting survey activities in one or more states covered by the NFHS.

Technical assistance for the NFHS was provided mainly by ORC Macro (USA) and other organizations on specific issues. The funding for different rounds of NFHS has been provided by USAID, DFID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, UNFPA, and MOHFW, GOI.