Women in Andhra Pradesh putting on weight

hyderabad: women in andhra pradesh are putting on extra weight and this is causing concern among scientists and medical fraternity. recent data from indian national family health survey (for 1998-1999) show that 12 per cent of the women could be classified as overweight and two per cent as obese. in large cities of andhra pradesh, where four per cent of the sample live, a whopping 37 per cent of women were overweight or obese.a new study that analysed the putting-on-weight trend found that women addicted to a slew of television serials and programmes had extra pounds of fat and weighed more. investigators at the university of north carolina (unc) and carolina population centre conducted the research. the study concentrated on 4,032 women in both urban and rural parts of andhra pradesh, which has a population of nearly 80 million. the study, done by post-doctoral fellow dr paula griffiths and dr margaret e bentley, associate professor and associate chair of nutrition at unc, co-wrote a report on their findings which appeared in the october issue of the journal of nutrition. the new study is important because as obesity rises, india is beginning to feel the burden of associated chronic diseases, the researchers said. among these are heart disease, hypertension and adult-onset diabetes. overall, 37 per cent of women in the region have a body mass index (bmi) of less than 18.5 and are considered thin, and eight per cent are severely malnourished, the researchers found. the bmi is a mathematical combination of height and weight that is an indicator of nutritional status. a bmi between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered the normal range. "in rural areas where 74 per cent of the study population resides, 43 per cent of women have a low body mass index", they wrote. women from lower socio-economic groups are also significantly more likely to have a low bmi. the subjects' economic status was a better predictor of both overweight and underweight than where the women lived, although urban living was an important factor too. those who were more affluent, tended to weigh more than others, which usually is true in poor nations but not necessarily in wealthy ones like united states. improvements in the nutritional status of the population have been less impressive, they said. more than half of the world's undernourished population lives in india, and more than half of indian children are undernourished. more than 50 per cent women are anaemic. in 1993, the world development report showed an increase in consumption of fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and the clarified butter product known as ghee in india. surveys by national nutritional monitoring bureau revealed that five per cent of indian population were consuming 40 per cent of the available fat. "by nearly any measure, india remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with a population of over one billion and a fertility rate well above replacement level", griffiths and bentley wrote. past nutrition research in india has focussed chiefly on malnutrition associated with food shortages, poverty and high infection rates, but the new study offers a surprise and cause for concern, scientists say. educated people in higher socio-economic groups are the first to respond to nutrition education messages and reduce their risk of obesity, the authors said. "hence, providing health education messages and interventions for overweight women in the higher socio-economic groups on healthy diets and healthy lifestyles might be effective in reducing incidents of overweight and obesity in this group", they said. the us agency for international development chiefly funded the second indian family health survey of 1998-99 and the national family health survey 1998-99 data were collected by the international institute for population sciences in mumbai with women in the survey ranging from 15 to 49 in age.