FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERN AND PREVALENCE OF OBESITY IN THREE ZONES OF SUB HIMALAYAN REGION, INDIA: A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Objective: To study the food consumption pattern and its association with obesity and overweight in three zones of sub Himalayan Region, India.

Methods: A survey was conducted in three zones of Uttrakhand (Dehradun, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi), India representing the urban, semi urban, rural, village population (18-45 years) of the state. For the study, 100 adults were selected from each of the 3 zones respectively to make a total sample size of 300 adults using purposive random sampling. WHO STEPS questionnaire was used to study the food consumption pattern in three zones of Uttrakhand.

Results: The prevalence of overweight women from urban zone (Dehradun), semi urban zone (Rudraprayag) were 62.1% and 58.8% respectively. In both males and females there was a significant association of BMI status and zone with higher percentage of overweight and obese being from Dehradun followed by Rudraprayag and lastly Uttarkashi (χ2=15.750, p=0.003). A very high proportion of all the three populations reported inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables. Only 22.4% consumed fruits and 73.6% consumed vegetables 7 days a week, with maximum number of population having one serving of fruits and two serving of vegetable. 87.9% and 85.3% of men and women from from Dehradun zone consumed Biscuit and Namkeen and other fried food items on daily bases. Whereas consumption of such food items on daily bases were nominal among other two zones.