Four out of 10 people in Delhi overweight, finds survey

Almost 4 out of every 10 people in Delhi are either overweight or obese according to the summary findings of the National Family Health Survey-5 , a significant deterioration from the previous edition of the survey in 2015-16.

According to the survey, 41.3% of adult women and 38% men have a body-mass index (BMI) in excess of 25. This has increased from 33.5% for women and 24.6% for men from NFHS-4. The numbers are also higher than the national average -- 24% women and 22.9% men.

BMI – an indicator of body fat based on the height and weight of a person – between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy, and between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. That over 30 is considered obese. The NFHS data does not give a clear break up of how many people are overweight or obese.

“The increasing rates of obesity means more people will end up with lifestyles diseases in the future. We need to ensure that we take action now to prevent this... We need to increase awareness about proper diet and exercise. Not only are people eating more than the required daily calories, they are also leading a more sedentary life, especially in urbanised centres like Delhi. There is also a need to add labelling about fat, sugar, salt, and total calorie content in the front of packaged items to warn people,” said Dr Suneela Garg, professor of community medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College.

A 2020 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicted that 27.4% women would be overweight and 13.9%, obese by 2040 in India. For men, the corresponding proportions are 30.5% and 9.5%.

Obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for other lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart ailments. A little over one in two men (56%) and close to two-thirds (65%) women who are currently 20 years old are likely develop diabetes later in life, with the obese being at an 85% risk of developing diabetes, according to a 2020 study by researchers from US, UK and India including doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

The silver lining?

There has been a decline in the proportion of people who are underweight, the data shows. In Delhi, 10% women and 9.1% men are underweight, meaning they have a BMI under 18.5.

As for lifestyle diseases, 4.2% women and 5.3% men have high blood sugar levels between 141 and 160mg/dL and 6.3% women and 7.3% men have very high blood sugar level over 160 mg/dL. Comparable data from the previous round of survey is not available for these parameters.

The survey also shows that 14.7% women had mildly elevated blood pressure and 5.9% had moderately or severely elevated blood pressure. Among men, 21.8% had mildly high blood pressure and 8.7% had moderate to severely high blood pressure.