The Health Ministry has reduced the diagnostic
cut-offs for body mass index (BMI) to 23 kg/m2 and the standard waist
circumference to deal obesity
New Delhi: Alarmed by reports that India will become the global
diabetes capital by 2050, the Health Ministry has reduced the
diagnostic cut-offs for body mass index (BMI) to 23 kg/m2 and the
standard waist circumference to fight the battle against obesity.
The
standards have been set for the first time in the Ministry's consensus
guidelines for Prevention and Management of Obesity and Metabolic
Syndrome for the country, released on Tuesday.
The BMI—considered the individual's fitness and obesity indicator—is the ratio of the body weight in kg versus height in m2.
The country's new diagnostic cut-off for the body mass index is 23 kg/m2 as opposed to 25 kg/m2 globally.
The
guidelines were released jointly by the Health Ministry, the Diabetes
Foundation of India, the All-India Institute of Medical Science
(Aiims), Indian Council of Medical Research, the National Institute of
Nutrition and 20 other health organisations.
A person with a
body mass index of 23 kg/m2 will now be considered overweight and below
that as one with normal BMI—unlike the cut-off limit of 25 kg/m2
earlier.
Those with BMI of 25 kg/m2 will be clinically termed
obese (as opposed to 30 kg/m2 at the international level) and those
with BMI of 32.5 kg/m2 will require bariatric surgery to eliminate
excess flab.
According to guidelines, cut-offs for waist
circumstances will now be 90 cm for Indian men (as opposed to 102 cm
globally) and 80 cm for Indian women (as opposed to 88 cm at the
international level).
This is the first time India has
officially compiled its weight and flab statistics to step up the fight
against obesity and its direct fallout—diabetes.
Studies say
that India will become the global diabetes capital by 2050 if the
abdominal and lower limb obesity and metabolic syndrome are not
arrested.
Researches over the last several years have shown
that Indian bodies and genetics are different from their western
counterparts. Indians suffer from abdominal obesity compared to people
in the west whose bodies are uniformly obese.
"The Indian body
composition puts them in high risk for diabetes and hypertension. The
guidelines—with revised statistics—will benefit the additional 15-20
per cent (60-80 million) of the Indian population who can now be
clinically termed obese under the revised measurements," Anoop Mishra,
director and head, department of diabetes and metabolic diseases,
Fortis Hospitals, New Delhi and Noida, said releasing the guidelines.
The
guidelines estimate that the absolute mortality due to chronic heart
diseases in India will increase to 20.3 million annually by 2010 and by
2020 it will touch 2.58 million. The mortality rate stood at 1.59
million in 2000.
The current load of diabetes in the
country—41 million—is expected to rise by 170 per cent in the next 20
years. Even today, India has the largest population of diabetics in the
world, the guidelines said.
According to the report, every
second person in Delhi fulfils the criteria of obesity or has excess
abdominal fat and nearly one-fourth of the adolescent population in the
capital has Syndrome X or metabolic syndrome, that heralds the onset of
heart diseases and diabetes.
The study says one in every three
Indians has high triglyceride (bad cholesterol) levels and 30-70 per
cent has low levels of HDL (good cholesterol).
One in every three Indians has high blood pressure, which is expected to shoot by 60 per cent in the next 20 years.
"For
every 10 extra kilograms above the stipulated body weight (measured
according to height), life expectancy of a person reduces by three
years," the report said.
"The situation merits an urgent need
to formulate guidelines and protocol applications for the Indian
obesity because the clinical presentation of obesity and its associated
metabolic dysfunctions are so unique here than in the rest of the
world," Sir Gangaram Hospital's Minimal Access and Bariatric Surgery
Centre Chairman P Chowbey said.
The need for weight and fitness
guidelines, specific to Asian countries, was first stressed in a study
by the World Health Organisation's sub-committee set up to look into
obesity and metabolic syndromes in the Asia-Pacific region in 2000.
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