Prevalence pattern of obesity across different age groups in a rural setting in Kerala

There has been a rise in prevalence ofobesity and lifestyle diseases in India in theaftermath of the economic boom in the lastfew years1, 2. Obesity if unchecked will leadto a host of lifestyle diseases. We tried toanalyse if there was a trend in relation toage, in the prevalence of obesity in a ruralpopulation in Varkala, Kerala. Data wascollected from PROLIFE population registryof lifestyle disease from Chemmaruthypanchayat in Varkala, through house visitsand involved 3423 subjects over 20 years ofage. Height and weight were measured andBody Mass Index (B.M.I) was calculated.Analysis results reveal that for the mostproductive age group, the 30-40 % of thepopulation in our study setting was eitherobese or overweight. This indicates that weshould expect a rise in lifestyle diseases inepidemic proportion in the near future.