New Delhi: Although malnourishment among women and children is widespread in India, increasing numbers of girls and women are overweight too, especially among urban, educated and wealthier families, a new global study has found. The proportion of overweight and obese women almost doubled in 17 years to 2016, it said.
The study, ‘Trends and Correlates of Overweight among Pre-School Age Children, Adolescent Girls, and Adult Women in South Asia’, was published in the global journal Nutrients in August 2019.
In 17 years from 1999 to 2016, the proportion of children younger than five years who were overweight fell from 2.9% to 2.1%. During the same period, however, the proportion of adolescent girls (15-19 years) and women (20-49 years) who were overweight more than doubled from 1.6% to 4.9% and 11.4% to 24%, respectively. The prevalence of obesity among women in this age group more than doubled from 2.4% to 6%.
The study examined preschool, adolescent and adult women in six countries of South Asia–Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Maldives and Nepal. All countries studied followed a similar trend in prevalence of excess body weight and obesity, researchers who worked on the study from Yale University, Tufts University and UNICEF found.
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