Double burden of malnutrition among women residing in tenements in a resettlement area, Kancheepuram district.

Abstract

The double burden of malnutrition is the co-existence of undernutrition along with overweight/obesity. The underweight can cause cognitive impairment, increase mortality, and over nutrition increases the chance of noncommunicable diseases like type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Women are vulnerable for early marriages, early conception, and so forth, which have an impact on their nutritional status. To estimate the prevalence of double burden of malnutrition among women residing in tenements in a resettlement area, Kancheepuram district. This is a cross-sectional study conducted among women aged above 18 years residing in a tenement in a resettlement area, Kancheepuram district using a semi-structured questionnaire. The sample size was 211. The median age of the participants was 44. 78; 2% were married; 30.8% belong to class III. Based on BMI 1.4% were underweight, 17.1% had normal BMI, 48.8% were pre-obese, and 19.9% were under obese stage 1. Based on the waist circumference, 23.7% were under high risk and according to the waist-hip ratio, 69.7% were under high risk. The prevalence of diabetes among the high-risk category for waist-hip ratio was higher (80.3%) with statistical significance. The national programs are concentrating more on the undernutrition. The importance of obesity as a risk factor for many noncommunicable diseases should be stressed in the nutritional programs thereby providing proper interventions to prevent them, which could be done by interlinking with NPCDCS.