Do burdens of underweight and overweight coexist among lower socioeconomic groups in India?

ABSTRACT:

Background

The coexistence of underweight and overweight in rapidly developing economies is well recognized. However, less is known about the socioeconomic patterning of underweight and overweight as economies move through the epidemiologic transition.

Objective

The objective was to assess whether burdens of underweight and overweight coexist among lower socioeconomic groups in India.

Design

Repeated cross-sectional analyses were conducted in nationally representative samples of 76,514 and 80,054 women aged 15-49 y drawn from the 1998-1999 and 2005-2006 Indian National Family Health Survey, respectively. Body mass index (in kg/m(2)) was used to measure weight status. We also calculated a ratio of the number of underweight women (<18.5) divided by the number of overwei

SUBMITTER: Subramanian SV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2709313 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature