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High prevalence of diabetes, obesity and dyslipidaemia in urban slum population in northern India

International Journal of Obesity volume 25, pages 1722–1729 (2001)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 21 August 2002

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In this study, a prevalence survey of various atherosclerosis risk factors was carried out on hitherto poorly studied rural–urban migrants settled in urban slums in a large metropolitan city in northern India, with the aim of studying anthropometric and metabolic characteristics of this population in socio-economic transition.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional epidemiological descriptive study.

SUBJECTS: A total of 532 subjects (170 males and 362 females) were included in the study (response rate approximately 40%).

METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, diabetes mellitus was recorded in 11.2% (95% CI 6.8–16.9) of males and 9.9% (95% CI 7.0–13.5) of females, the overall prevalence being 10.3% (95% CI 7.8–13.2). Based on body mass index (BMI), obesity was more prevalent in females (15.6%; 95% CI 10.7–22.3) than in males (13.3%; 95% CI 8.5–19.5). On the other hand, classifying obesity based on percentage body fat (%BF), 10.6% (95% CI 6.4–16.2) of males and 40.2% (95% CI 34.9–45.3) of females were obese. High waist–hip ratio (WHR) was observed in 9.4% (95% CI 5.4–14.8) of males and 51.1% (95% CI 45.8–56.3) of the females. All individual skinfolds and sum of skinfolds were significantly higher in females (P<0.001). In both males and females above 30 y of age, there was a steep increase in the prevalence of high WHR, and in females, %BF was very high (particularly in %BF quartile>30%). Furthermore, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were high in both males and females. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis showed that for both males and females BMI, WHR and %BF were positive predictors of biochemical parameters, except for HDL-c, for which these parameters were negatively associated.

CONCLUSIONS: Appreciable prevalence of obesity, dyslipidaemia, diabetes mellitus, substantial increase in body fat, generalised and regional obesity in middle age, particularly in females, need immediate attention in terms of prevention and health education in such economically deprived populations.

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Acknowledgements

The study was fully supported by financial grant from Science and Society Division, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The authors express their appreciation to the staff of SRB Centre of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi including Mr Ramesh Giri, Mr Inder Taneja, Mr Gian Chand and Mrs Alice Jacob for performing various investigations, Mr RL Taneja for performing quality control of various biochemical tests, Mrs Jyoti for typing and Miss Kajal for editing the manuscript. Help and voluntary services provided from the volunteers, in particular the late Mr Jaipal, and the population of the slum community is appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    A Misra, J Rama Devi & NK Vikram

  2. Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    RM Pandey

  3. Department of Dietetics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    R Sharma & Nidhi Khanna

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  1. A Misra
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Correspondence to A Misra.

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Misra, A., Pandey, R., Rama Devi, J. et al. High prevalence of diabetes, obesity and dyslipidaemia in urban slum population in northern India. Int J Obes 25, 1722–1729 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801748

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