Prevalence of obesity in adults--an epidemiological study from Kashmir Valley of Indian Subcontinent.
OBJECTIVE
Obesity is a health problem in the majority of the developed countries and is emerging as a serious problem in the developing countries. In this study we examined 5083 Kashmiri adults to determine the prevalence of obesity.


METHODS
In this epidemiological study, after multistage sampling procedure from all the six districts of Kashmir Valley, 5083 Kashmiri adults (males and non-pregnant females of > or = 40 years age) were examined for body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR).


RESULTS
Out of 5083 study subjects, 2496 were males and 2587 were females. BMI ranged between 14.6 to 38.5 kg/m2 in males and between 13.6 to 42.6 kg/m2 in females. BMI in females was comparatively more than that in males (23.88 +/- 3.94 Vs 22.30 +/- 3.11, p < 0.001). WHR ranged between 0.68 to 1.16 in males and between 0.65 to 1.16 in females. Again females had comparatively more WHR than their male counterparts (0.935 +/- 0.055 vs 0.926 +/- 0.055, P < 0.001). According to BMI, the overall prevalence of obesity in the study population was 15.01%; the prevalence of obesity in males was 7.01% and in females 23.69%.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that obesity is a growing problem even in developing regions like ours. It is more common in females and in urban population.
Department of Endocrinology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, India.
A H
AH
Zargar
S R
SR
Masoodi
B A
BA
Laway
A K
AK
Khan
A I
AI
Wani
M I
MI
Bashir
S
S
Akhtar
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001824:Body Constitution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution