Trends in the distribution of body mass index among women aged 20-60 years

Abstract

ntroduction: Risks of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and type-2 diabetes mellitus increase steadily with increasing body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height. Materials and Methods: A multistage random cluster sampling procedure was used to draw sample from this region. Randomly selected women aged >20 and <60 years were studied during sampling. Results: 21.6% women were found to be malnourished in the total population. The degree of obesity had been observed as overweight 26% and Obese-I 11.7 % and Obese-II were 66.7% Age remains the most significant risk factor for obesity among women. In overweight women, average waist circumference was 83.5 cms and average waist circumference of obese-I and obese-II were 88 cms and 108 cms. Central obesity was present in 44.3% women The prevalence of obesity was high in 40–59.9 age group females than 20–39.9 age group and >60 age group Conclusion: Both rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries together with the adoption of modern life styles thougy added to wealth but have brought new problems in the form of non-communicable diseases.