Socio-Economic and Demographic Correlates of Overweight and Obesity: A Study on the Karbi Women of Assam, Northeast India

Nitish Mondal, Ruplin Timungpi, Jaydip Sen and Kaushik Bose*

Socio-Economic and Demographic Correlates of Overweight and Obesity: A Study on the Karbi Women of Assam, Northeast India. Overweight or obesity is a serious chronic condition contributing to non-communicable disease related mortalities, morbidities and causes major public health problems. The World Health Organization  has declared that obesity is one of present day’s most blatantly visible, yet most neglected public health problems that require urgent interventions.

The increase in the prevalence of excess adiposity  varies across populations and has increased alarmingly during the past two decades with obesity rates being tripled in the developing countries. There has also been a shift in the prevalence of excess adiposity  towards poorer socio-economic groups and women.

In India, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is currently becoming one of the major public health issues. On one hand, studies indicated that such prevalence is more pronounced among those individuals residing in the urban and sub-urban areas when compared to the rural areas of the country. On the other hand, few studies reported the effects of different socio-economic, demographic and lifestyle factors related to overweight and obesity among Indian populations.

Therefore, there appears to be a need to study the possible association of socio-economic and demographic factors affecting the excess adiposity patterns among individuals. The identification of potential risk factors(s) for excess adiposity is a very challenging task for any researcher focused on population-specific investigations. The idea that attainment of higher education, socio-economic status and development and lifestyle modification with increasing age leads to the development of excess adiposity among women constituted the research question of the present study.

Anthropol Open J. 2017; 2(2): 31-39. doi: 10.17140/ANTPOJ-2-111

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