The dramatic rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in India: Obesity transition and the looming health care crisis

Zakaria Siddiqui and Ronald Donato

World Development, 2020, vol. 134, issue C

Abstract: The dramatic increase in overweight/obesity prevalence in India and the concomitant increase in nutrition-related non-communicable diseases present critical health policy challenges. This paper analyses two successive nationally representative household datasets – the 2015–16 and 2005–06 National Family Health Survey rounds – to discern the extent of shifts in overweight/obesity prevalence underway in India and the implications for informing policy. Unique features of the study are the focus given to analysing overweight/obesity across different sub-populations, based on gender, rurality and socio-economic status, and the diverse pattern of the prevalence across individual states over time. A fixed effects model using state-time interactions is used to analyse state-level variations and time-dependent effects across particular sub-populations. Despite the considerable increase in the prevalence of overweight/obesity over the past decade and a degree of convergence across population cohorts, the results show that this has been accompanied by considerable variation and divergence between states. Our findings reveal that a select few economically advanced states, most noticeably for wealthy urban female cohorts, experienced negative time-dependent effects where the predicted rates of overweight/obesity declined over the decade. However, some less developed and more populous states experienced positive time-dependent effects such that by 2015–16 they had attained overweight/obesity rates that had overtaken those of richer states. Also, interestingly, beyond a particular threshold education exhibits a negative relationship in the likelihood of overweight/obesity for females but not for males. Policymakers need to understand the driving factors underpinning the state-level differences and the changing patterns across cohorts over time, and to formulate regionally–based policies that specifically target these differences rather than pursue a single policy approach. Moreover, India’s health system needs to be re-orientated to manage burgeoning chronic disease conditions and to address the burden placed on the poor given that such health expenditure is mostly privately incurred.

Keywords: Obesity transition; India; State-level variations; Health crisis; Policy issues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s0305750x20301765

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105050

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