NEW DELHI: India’s obesity rates are predicted to rise substantially and by 2050, it is estimated that 17.4% of women and 12.1% of men will be living with it, said a whitepaper, which recommends policy change to address the growing epidemic in the country.
What is worrisome is that the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents (aged 5-19 years) is increasing from 0.1% to 3.1% in girls and from 0.2% to 3.7% in boys between 1990 and 2022, to a total of 12.5 million children and adolescents living with obesity.
The whitepaper written by 12 Indian experts, including from AIIMS, Delhi; Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu; Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram; and Jothydev’s Diabetes Research Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala, said, that a significant barrier in India is that obesity is often viewed as a lifestyle condition rather than a chronic disease, despite broad international recognition of this status.
Recommending policy change to ensure that obesity is adequately managed in India, the whitepaper said, this will help improve health of the overall population and reduce disease burden and healthcare costs. Published in the International Journal of Clinical Obesity, the official clinical journal of the World Obesity Federation, the whitepaper said obesity is associated with an increased risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease and is a risk factor for various cancers like colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, liver, oesophageal, pancreatic and post-menopausal breast cancer.
Speaking with this paper, Dr V Mohan, Chairman of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai, and the co-author of the study, said, “The main aim of this article is to raise the level of awareness about obesity at the policy level. Right now, it is being treated as an individual problem. People eat more, eat junk food, and that’s what it is. But it is much more than that.”
“Obesity is not easy to control just by cutting down a little bit of diet. We are calling for government action to treat obesity as a chronic disease, which will remove social stigma,” he said.
The experts stressed that to address the obesity epidemic in India, transformative and comprehensive policy changes, along with greater awareness, are needed from the government and the general population.