Prevalence of obesity, food consumption pattern and dietary intake of working women in B.H.U, Varanasi

Abstract

Overweight and obesity is a major health concern in today's era. It is escalating day by day due to rapid change in diet, lack of physical activity and lifestyle. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described obesity as one of today's most neglected public health problem, affecting every region of the globe. According to World Health Statistics of 2012 report, one in six adults is obese, one in ten is diabetic and one in three has raised blood pressure. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio can be considered as a useful tool to assess obesity. The objective of the present study is to assess the prevalence of obesity, food consumption pattern and dietary intake of working women in Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. A pilot study was done on 50 respondents (working women) in BHU and the respondents were selected by Simple random sampling technique. From the present study the prevalence of obesity was found 68 per cent according to worldwide BMI, 74 per cent according to Asian countries BMI and 72 per cent according to waist-hip ratio. In context of food consumption pattern, 42 per cent of the respondents include fruits daily and 64 per cent of them include roots and tuber mainly potato daily in their diet. Protein and fat consumption of the respondents was high as compared to RDA 2010. The results of the study suggested that more than half of the respondents suffering from the problem of obesity. Therefore, there is a need to develop strategies to combat the problem of obesity.