Srinagar, Jun 28: Nearly one in every two J&K women living in urban areas now carries excess weight, according to the latest National Family Health Survey – 6 (NFHS-6).
In just five years, the percentage of women who are either overweight or obese has increased by 7 percent, signaling a growing lifestyle health crisis brewing unnoticed.
The survey reported that 48.7 percent of urban women aged 15-49 years have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 kg/m² or above.
This puts them in the overweight or obese category.
BMI is a measurement tool that uses a mathematical formula based using a person’s height and weight to estimate total body fat.
It helps assess potential health risks associated with excess weight.
In rural areas of J&K, although obesity is a rising concern as well, the figures are much lower than urban areas.
Rural women with excess weight are 33.3 percent of the population.
The rural-urban combined prevalence among women has climbed to 36.7 percent, according to NFHS-6 data, pertaining to 2023-24 period.
It was 29.4 percent in the previous NFHS-5 (2019-21).
On a brighter side, excess weight has decreased in men in J&K over the five years.
NFHS-6 shows 27.1 percent of men aged 15-49 years carry excess weight, a decline from 31.7 percent in NFHS-5.
However, one in four men in J&K still remains overweight or obese.
The concern extends beyond body weight and body shape.
Prof S M Saleem Khan, faculty and former head Social and Preventive Medicine at GMC Srinagar believes that J&K is transitioning from infectious to lifestyle diseases at an “overly accelerated pace”.
“Without immediate population-wide interventions focused on diet, exercise, and routine NCD screening, we will face a massive burden of premature morbidity and escalating healthcare costs,” he said.
NFHS-6 has already shown the evidence of this growing burden: 13 percent of women aged 15 years and above in J&K now have blood sugar levels above 140 mg/dl or are taking medication to control diabetes.
This is a leap from 8.7 percent recorded five years ago.
Among men as well, the prevalence has also risen significantly.
From 8 percent in NFHS-5 to 11.3 percent in NFHS-6 – more than one in every nine adult men now has high blood sugar.
Corresponding with the average weight, among urban women 14.6 percent have high blood sugar compared with 11.9 percent rural women.
Among men 14.3 percent in urban areas have high or very high blood sugar, compared to 10.3 percent rural men.
At the other end of this spectrum is under-nutrition: approximately 9.5 percent of both women and men have a BMI below 18.5 kg/m².
This figure is almost double the levels reported in the previous survey.
The figures of under-over weight combined point to a “double burden of malnutrition” in J&K.
Health experts blame changing food habits, declining physical activity, increased dependence on processed foods, longer sedentary hours and rising stress levels for the excess body weight among the population.
Excess weight is among the strongest risk factors for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and chronic kidney disease.
