Effects of sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits on body mass index change among adult women in India: Findings from a follow-up study

Authors

Praween Kumar Agrawal, Population Council
Kamla Gupta
Vinod Mishra
Sutapa Agrawal

Document Type

Article (peer-reviewed)

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

We examined the effects of sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits on body mass index (BMI) change in a follow-up study of 325 women (aged 15-49 years) in Delhi, systematically selected from the 1998-1999 National Family Health Survey samples who were re-interviewed after 4 years in 2003. Information was collected on height, weight, dietary habits, and sedentary lifestyle through face-to-face interviews. Overall, a 2.0-point increase in mean BMI was found among women in just 4 years. Every second normal-BMI woman, two in five overweight women, and every fourth obese woman experienced a > 2.0-point increase in her mean BMI. High sedentary lifestyle (OR: 2.63; 95% CI: 1.29-5.35) emerged as the main predictor of a > 2.0-point increase in mean BMI in adjusted analysis, but there was weak evidence of association with the dietary covariates. Our findings suggest that a high sedentary lifestyle is a determinant of weight gain among adult women in urban India.

Recommended Citation

Agrawal, Praween Kumar, Kamla Gupta, Vinod Mishra, and Sutapa Agrawal. 2013. "Effects of sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits on body mass index change among adult women in India: Findings from a follow-up study," Ecology of Food and Nutrition 52(5): 387–406.

DOI

10.1080/03670244.2012.719346

Language

English