"Even in countries such as India, which is typically
known for high prevalence of under nutrition, a significant
proportion of overweight and obese people now coexist
with those who are undernourished," said Praween Agrawal
of the International Institute of Population Sciences.
"This epidemic has emerged almost unnoticed in our society,"
said Agrawal, who released the results of a new study
of women in India which confirmed the trend.
"In the past, governments in many developing countries
with high levels of under nutrition and a high prevalence
of communicable diseases have paid little attention to
the problems of overweight and obesity".
Praween's study of 90,000 women aged between 15 and
49 from across India found that among women who began
at a normal weight, 31 percent became overweight and seven
percent obese within four years, while 60 percent of those
retained their normal weight. Of those women already overweight
29 percent had become obese.
The Indian national health survey of 1998-99 found six
percent of women aged between 15 to 49 years old in urban
India were obese and 18 percent overweight.
"Though the pattern of obesity is still in its early
stages in India, compared to Western countries, it nervertheless
needs to be tackled before it reaches epidemic proportions,"
said Agrawal.
Obesity is growing fast in the developing world, as
income levels rise, but affects primarily the wealthy
whereas in developed countries it is higher in lower socio-economic
groups.
In Latin America and the Caribbean the highest obesity
rates were recorded in Uruguay followed by those of Chile
and Mexico, although data is patchy according to a study
by Flava Cristina Drumond Andrade of the University of
Wisconsin in the United States.
An estimated 18 percent of the population in Uruguay
in 2004 was obese while 21 percent of the urban Mexican
population in the early 1990's was obese.
In India high income women living in urban areas were
founded to have a higher risk of obesity.
In many developing countries, with increasing urbanisation
and mechanisation of jobs and transport, availability
of processed and fast foods, and dependence on television
for leisure people are adopting less physically active
lifestyles and more energy dense and nutrient poor diets,
Agrawal said.
Obesity has serious health consequences increasing the
risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, orthopedic
disorders and reproductive problems in women.
Obesity is already a major health problem in developed
countries with the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimating
there are one billion people worldwide who are overweight
with 250 million clinically obese, the combined equivalent
of seven percent of the world's population.
WHO data for 79 countries estimates there are 22 million
five-year-old children who are obese.
Incidence of obesity is expected to double between 1995
and 2025.
