Obesity and chronic deficiency among adult bidi workers of Central India

Abstract

The present study was conducted among the Bidi workers of a village named Pathaiya Jat of Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. The data were collected on 254 individuals belonging to a total of 119 households. Anthropometric measurement viz. stature (height), body weight, acromian height and sitting height were measured and body mass index (BMI) and cormic index (CI) were computed for each individual. The average body weight among males was found 56.6±11.0 kg and among females were 50.6±9.86 kg. The average stature among males were 163.4±8.1 cm and among females 161.0±12 cm. The average body mass index among males was 21±4.1 kg m-2 which is lower than females (22.6±4.4 kg m-2). The mean cormic index among males was 0.507±0.052 which is similar to females 0.507±0.044. A total of 46.3% Bidi workers were found malnourished out of which the proportion of chronic energy deficient was higher as compared to obese. Further the proportions of obese were higher in females as compared to males. According to Asia Pacific BMI cut-off a total of 53.1% and 60.4% female were nutritionally normal and have low to moderated health risk whereas 0.9% male and 0.7% female were found as obese (BMI 35-37.5 kgm-2) and having high health risk. The mean BMI of present studied population is higher than previous studies among Indian population. It is apparent from regression analysis that 65% body mass index is determining by body weight and the height have meager (2.3%) role in deciding the BMI fallowed by other somatometric and physiological characteristics.