NFHS-5 Data Shows India Forgot Its Obesity Burden while Fighting Undernutrition
News 18A few decades ago, obesity was not considered a public health issue. However, obesity is now afflicting more than 44 per cent of the world’s population. In terms of gender, obesity has increased by 4 per cent in both men and women in India during the last five years. Trends over the Years Obesity and overweight were identified as a developing problem in India in the third round of the NFHS, with the percentage of married women who were overweight or obese increasing from 11 per cent in NFHS-2 to 15 per cent in NFHS-3. The data across various rounds of National Family Health Surveys shows that obesity has become one of the major metabolic risk factors for increase in non-communicable diseases, which account for more than 60 per cent of all deaths in India.