One in two ‘healthy’ adults in Delhi slums overweight: Study

NEWDELHI: Nearly one in two persons were overweight and one in six were obese, showed a physical evaluation of healthy adults in a Delhi slum. Although 65.5% of the more than 300 persons tested claimed to be physically active, 64.9% were either overweight or obese.

Nearly 40% had high blood pressure and 20.1% used tobacco, all of which are independent risk factors for leading lifestyle diseases such heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

A total of 500 people were evaluated at the camp in south Delhi’ Sangam Vihar by a team from Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre.

Complete data was available for 314 people, of which 47.7% were overweight with Body Mass Index (BMI) in the range of (25.5 -29), while 17.2% of the individu- als were obese with BMI over 30 and above.

Around 37.3% had high blood pressure under the current Indian parameters of 140/90 mmhg, which have been recently lowered to 130/80 mmhg by the American heart Association. “Going by the US definition, the figure would be an alarming 50 percent,” said Dr Upendra Kaul, chairman, Heart Centre at Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre.

Hypertension is attributable to 10.8% of all deaths in India.

“Hypertension is called a silent killer, as many don’t know they have high blood pressure. many of those who get diagnosed don’t get treated appropriately. Lifestyle is a major contributor so people have to eat right and exercise to control it,” said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), who launched the May Measurement Month campaign to generate awareness about the condition.

Doctors who did the survey said what was most worrying was the fact that those tested were apparently healthy , with no known history of any disease.“we ensured that those who were a part of the study didn’t have any known health condition so that we get an idea about the health of so-called healthy people,” said Dr Upendra Kaul, chairman, heart centre, Batra Hospital and Medical Research Center. The hospital led the initiative.

Another risk factor is tobacco use, with 20.1% using tobacco products. Among tobacco users, 36.7 % used smokeless tobacco products and the remaining 63.3% used cigarettes, bidis, etc.

More than 50% people were in the productive age group of 25 to 44 years, and only 7.6% of the individuals evaluated were children between the age of 5 and 14 years.