J HEALTH POPUL NUTR 2014 Mar;32(1):79-88
ISSN 1606-0997 | $ 5.00+0.20
©INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR DIARRHOEAL
DISEASE RESEARCH, BANGLADESH
Overweight and Obesity among Women by
Economic Stratum in Urban India
Jitendra Gouda, Ranjan Kumar Prusty
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India
ABSTRACT
Using data of the third round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-2006, this study examined the prevalence of overweight and obesity among women from different economic strata in urban
India. The study used a separate wealth index for urban India constructed using principal components
analysis (PCA). The result shows that prevalence of overweight and obesity is very high in urban areas,
more noticeably among the non-poor households. Furthermore, overweight and obesity increase with
age, education, and parity of women. The results of multinomial logistic regression show that non-poor
women are about 2 and 3 times more at risk of being overweight and obese respectively. Marital status and
media exposure are the other covariates associated positively with overweight and obesity. Thus, the growing demand which now appears before the Government or urban health planners is to address this rising
urban epidemic with equal importance as given to other issues in the past.
Key words: Body mass index; Economic status; Urban women; India
INTRODUCTION
Obesity and overweight have become a global
epidemic now. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there will be about 2.3 billion
overweight people aged 15 years and above and
over 700 million obese people worldwide in 2015.
Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk of
deaths, resulting in around 2.8 million deaths of
adults globally every year. In addition, 44% of the
diabetes burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease, and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer
burdens are attributable to overweight or obesity
(1). The causes and co-morbidities of overweight or
obesity are rampant and have many commonalities among populations. Although identifying firm
causes of this epidemic is a difficult task, the most
obvious factors leading to overweight or obesity are
excessive intake of energy-dense food, sedentary
lifestyle, and lack of physical activity (2,3).
The problem of overweight or obesity is no more
restricted only to the developed world. Presently,
the epidemic poses new challenges in developCorrespondence and reprint requests:
Mr. Jitendra Gouda
Research student
International Institute for Population Sciences
Mumbai, India
Email: jitushome@gmail.com
Fax: +91 2225563257
ing countries and urges immediate attention and
prevention. These countries face double burden of
nutritional problems as they are yet to solve the
erstwhile problems of undernutrition and hunger
(4). Many scholars explained it in the perspective
of the “nutritional transition in developing countries, or the shift from traditional diets and lifestyles
to Western diets” (i.e. highly-saturated fats, sugar,
and refined foods) and the combination of reduced
levels of physical activity, transport facilities, better healthcare, and increased stress, particularly
in the rapidly-growing urban populations (5-7).
Furthermore, a significant positive correlation has
been observed between better economic status
and composition of diet consumed. People from
economically better-off families are more likely to
adopt sedentary lifestyle and intake energy-dense
food (7-13). For example, in China, along with its
rapid urbanization, the average intake of energydense food has increased over the last decade in
urban population. In addition, reduced physical
activity at work due to mechanization, improved
motorized transport, and preferences of viewing
television for longer duration have resulted in positive energy balance in people of most of the Asian
countries (10-13).
As in most developing nations, India is struggling
to eradicate the problem of undernutrition and
anaemia. Meanwhile, the country already witnessed the overweight and obesity problem. In-
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
dia has more than 30 million obese people, and
the number is increasing alarmingly (14-16). The
problem is more acute among women than men.
In urban India, more than 23% of women are either overweight or obese, which is higher than
the prevalence among men (20%) (16). Thus, the
country is burdened with two different nutritionrelated health problems (4). It has to grapple with
the problem of undernutrition and anaemia in one
hand and overweight or obesity on the other (1719). Unlike the developed countries where obesity
is generally concentrated among the low/middleincome groups, elevated adiposity levels in developing countries are more associated with women
from the richer sections of the society, noticeably
in urban areas (2,19-21).
However, evidence also suggests that unplanned
urbanization in developing countries, like India,
leads large proportion of people to live below the
poverty line. Moreover, they live in those deficient
areas which have limited availability of or accessibility to basic civic amenities (22). Further, they
exhibit different disease and health patterns from
their counterparts living above the poverty line or
in better-off areas (23,24). India has more than 30%
of the urban population, which is projected to increase to 900 million or 55% by 2050 (25,26). Due
to rapid and unplanned urbanization, intra-urban
socioeconomic disparities are rising, and health
inequality among urban dwellers is emerging as a
new challenge (27). Hence, any insightful assessment on defining section of the population with
high prevalence of overweight and obesity in the
urban setting in India will be helpful for the urban
health planners to tackle the problem. Therefore,
the present study attempts to shed light on overweight and obesity among women in urban India,
with special reference to their economic strata.
Objectives of the study are to understand the sociodemographic differentials of overweight and
obesity among women in urban India and selected
cities by their economic stratum and to find out
different covariates associated with overweight and
obesity among urban women in India.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study used data of the third round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-2006 for
the assessment of overweight and obesity among
women in urban India. The survey is the Indian
version of Demographic Health Survey (DHS)
which is conducted in more than 80 countries allover the world. NFHS-3 collects information from a
80
Gouda J and Prusty RK
nationally-representative sample of 109,041 households—124,385 women of reproductive age (15-49
years). The sample is a multistage cluster sample
with an overall response rate of 98%. Details of
sampling design, including sampling frame and
sample implementations, are provided in the basic
survey report for all India (16).
For the present study, ever-married women aged
15-49 years in urban areas were considered. All
50,639 valid cases, representing urban areas, were
taken into account, and the missing values were ignored. The analysis is based on the economic stratum. Thus, estimating economic condition of evermarried women in urban India is a prior condition
for this study. The direct measure of economic
status of any household or individual is income or
consumption expenditure, which is not available
in the dataset used. So, an alternative measure is
adopted by surveyors based on various economic
proxies, such as household amenities, housing
conditions, and consumer durables. All these proxy
variables are used in a composite index and referred
as the wealth index and are widely used in population and health analyses (23,28,29). However, many
studies have documented the limitation of deriving
such a single wealth index at the national level due
to variation in the economic situation among population representing different geographic regions
(30,31). Moreover, the economy in urban areas is
more diverse than in the rural areas (32,33). Therefore, we constructed a new wealth index for urban
India for this study.
Urban poor and non-poor: cutoff points
To demarcate urban poor and non-poor, a set of
consumer durables, household amenities, and
housing qualities based on the theoretical importance and statistical significance were selected.
The theoretical rationale refers to the sensitiveness
of the variables to urban areas. After selecting the
variables, principal components analysis (PCA)
was used in estimating the wealth index. From the
composite wealth index, a percentile distribution
was obtained and used for demarcating the poor
and non-poor in urban India (34).
The cutoff point to demarcate the poor and nonpoor in urban India is equated with the official estimates of poverty (time periods coinciding with the
surveys) derived from consumption expenditure
data by the Planning Commission of the Government of India. Accordingly, 26% of the population
in 2004-2005 (based on uniform recall period) is
classified as urban poor in the third round of the
JHPN
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
NFHS (2005-2006) (34). In recent years, a number
of studies have used the official estimates of poverty to demarcate the poor and non-poor in largescale surveys (35,36).
Outcome variables
Overweight and obesity: In NFHS-3, all ever-married
women, aged 15−49 years, were weighed using a
solar-powered scale with an accuracy of ±100 g.
Their heights were measured using an adjustable
wooden measuring board, specifically designed to
provide accurate measurements (to the nearest 0.1
cm) in a developing-country field situation. The
data on weight and height were used in calculating the body mass index (BMI). Women who were
pregnant at the time of the survey or women who
had given birth during the two months preceding
the survey were excluded (15,16). BMI can be used
in estimating the prevalence of underweight as well
as the prevalence of overweight and obesity. As per
the definition given by World Health Organization, a BMI of less than 18.5 kg/m2 is defined as
underweight, indicating chronic energy deficiency.
BMI in the range of 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2 is defined
as normal, 25.0 and 29.9 kg/m2 as overweight, and
more than 30.0 kg/m2 as obese (37).
Based on these cutoffs, the present study used
a three-category variable of nutritional status of
women, merging underweight and normal to indicate ‘not obese’ while keeping all others the same as
‘overweight’ and ‘obese’.
Gouda J and Prusty RK
India. The multinomial regression was used due to
the nature of the outcome variable. The outcome
variable has three categories, namely not obese,
overweight, and obese (coded as 0, 1, and 2 respectively). The results are presented in the form
of relative risk ratio (RRR), with 95% of confidence
interval. The relative risk (RR) explains the probability that a woman of an exposed group will be
overweight or obese relative to the probability that
a woman of an unexposed group will develop the
same. In all our analysis, weights are used for restoring the representativeness of the sample. The analyses are done with the help of SPSS (version 20.0)
and STATA (version 10) statistical packages.
RESULTS
Overweight and obesity among women in
urban india
The prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher
among urban women than their rural counterparts
in India. More than 23% of women in the urban
area are either overweight or obese compared to
only 7% of women in rural areas (Figure). More
than one-sixth of women in urban area are overweight, and around 6% of women are obese. The
problem is more acute among the non-poor than
the poor in urban India. For example, one-fifth of
the women from non-poor households are overweight compared to less than one-tenth of the
women from poor households. Moreover, 7% of
non-poor and only 2% of poor women are obese in
urban India (Table 1).
Predictor variables
The survey collects information on a number of demographic and socioeconomic factors, which could
potentially affect the nutritional status of women.
The variables which are included in this analysis
are: age of respondent, religion, caste, educational
attainment, marital status, parity, work status, region, and exposure to media. Listening to radio,
reading newspapers, and watching TV are used in
defining exposure to media in the study (17-18).
Among mega cities in India, Chennai has the highest (39%) proportion of overweight or obese urban
women, followed by Hyderabad (34%), and Kolkata (30%). Furthermore, it is observed that nonpoor women across all selected cities have higher
prevalence of overweight and obesity than their
counterparts from poor households (Table 1).
Sociodemographic differential in overweight
and obesity among poor and non-poor
women in urban India
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics are used for knowing the level
and differentials of overweight and obesity among
the poor and non-poor ever-married women by
different sociodemographic characteristics. The
results are presented in percentages. Multinomial
logistic regression analysis is used in estimating
the adjusted effects of selected socioeconomic and
demographic covariates on the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the urban women in
Volume 32 | Number 1 | March 2014
Comparing women of different age-groups across
the economic strata of households, it is observed
that women at later age (35+ years) are more overweight or obese than the reference group in 15-24
years. However, women from non-poor households at later age are more overweight or obese
than their counterparts from poor households. The
prevalence of overweight or obesity increases analogously with each additional age of women; yet,
the increase is much higher for non-poor than the
81
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
Gouda J and Prusty RK
Figure. Rural-Urban differential in the prevalence (In percentage) of overweight and obesity among
women in India, 2005-2006
17.2
6.1
6
1.2
Overweight
Obesity
Urban
Rural
Table 1. Overweight and obesity (in percentage) among women in major cities in India by economic
status, 2005-2006
BMI status
Overweight
Obesity
Poor (n)
Non-poor (n)
Total urban (N)
Economic
status
Poor
Non-poor
Total
Poor
Non-poor
Total
21.1
29.2
26.8
5.3
15.1
12.2
13.2
25.2
23.0
2.9
7.7
6.8
Hyderabad
15.6
25.0
23.0
5.2
11.8
10.4
699
1,216
1,915
487
1,792
2,279
664
2,084
2,748
Chennai
Kolkata
poor. Furthermore, non-poor women across all religions have higher proportion of overweight or obesity than their counterparts from poor households.
Women from non-poor households, irrespective
of their educational achievements, are more overweight or obese than their counterparts from poor
households. However, women with higher education across the economic backgrounds have higher
proportion of overweight or obesity than women
with any other educational achievements.
Women from non-poor households, irrespective of
work status, are more overweight and obese than
their counterparts from poor families. Yet, women
who are not engaged in any income-generating activities across economic backgrounds are more likely to be overweight or obese than working women.
82
8.6
20.5
19.2
2.1
8.7
8.0
12.5
20.4
19.0
3.6
8.8
7.9
Urban
India
8.8
20.0
17.3
2.1
7.1
5.9
319
1,965
2,284
291
1,424
1,715
11516
39,123
50,639
Delhi
Mumbai
The only exception is the non-poor and women
not working (19.8%), who have a slightly lower
proportion of overweight than working women
(20.4%). Parity and risk of being overweight or
obese among women is positively related as evident in the study. Furthermore, non-poor women
across parities are more overweight or obese than
their counterparts from poor households. Women
with 3 and more children from non-poor households (26% and 11%) have higher prevalence of
overweight and obesity respectively than women
in the same parity from poor households (11%
and 3%). Media exposure and risk of being of overweight and obese are positively associated in India.
Women with media exposure across all economic
backgrounds have higher proportion of overweight
and obesity than their counterparts without media
JHPN
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
exposure. However, non-poor women with media
exposure (20% and 7%) are more overweight and
obese than women from poor households with
media exposure (9% and 2%). Non-poor women
across all regions in India are more overweight and
obese than their counterparts in the poor households. Moreover, women from southern region, irrespective of economic backgrounds, have higher
prevalence of overweight and obesity than women
from any other regions in India (Table 2).
Multivariate analysis
The adjusted effect of selected demographic and
socioeconomic covariates on the risk of being overweight and obese among women in India is presented in Table 3. Comparing poor and non-poor
women, it is observed that non-poor women are
relatively 2.18 times (p<0.01, CI 2.016-2.366) and
2.84 times (p<0.01, CI 2.449-3.302) more likely
at risk of being overweight and obese respectively
than their poor counterparts in urban India. The
risk of being overweight (RRR=5.28, CI 4.7875.816) and obese (RRR=12.31, CI 10.163-14.904)
is more among women at later ages (35+ years)
than the reference group in 15-24 years. Muslims
(RRR=1.2, CI 1.086-1.275) and women from other
religions (RRR=1.3, CI 1.148-1.462) are more likely
to be overweight or obese than Hindu women.
Furthermore, women from other (upper) castes
groups are more overweight or obese than their
counterpart SC/ST women in India. Comparing
women by their educational achievements, it is
evident that women with higher education have
higher relative risk ratio (RRR=1.97 and 2.39) than
the women with no education. Furthermore, married women are 1.86 and 2.14 times more likely
to be overweight or obese respectively than the
never-married women. Women with media exposure are 1.65 and 1.45 times more likely at risk of
being overweight and obese than women without
media exposure. Women from southern India are
1.41 times (p<0.01, CI 1.299-1.534) and 1.48 times
(p<0.01, CI 1.301-1.672) more likely at risk of being
overweight and obese than the reference women
from the northern region.
DISCUSSION
The primary objective of this study was to assess
overweight and obesity among women in urban India, with special reference to their economic status.
The study found that higher proportions of women
in urban India are either overweight or obese than
their counterparts from rural area. The problem is
noticeably higher among affluent households than
Volume 32 | Number 1 | March 2014
Gouda J and Prusty RK
poor families. This generally contrasts with the
findings of other studies conducted on the similar issues in Western and African countries where
the poor are found to be more overweight or obese
than the affluent (19,38). Nevertheless, a number
of studies conducted in developing countries, especially in Asia, support the findings of this study, viz.
the affluent are more overweight or obese than the
poor (13,18) .
In the mega cities, the situation is alarming. Many
women are either overweight or obese in the selected cities studied in India. This condition could
well be compared with many other developed nations where the prevalence of overweight and obesity is accumulating steadily (39,40). The reasons
behind non-poor women for being overweight or
obese could be many in India. In a nutshell, rising
income due to increasing participation in employment and improving socioeconomic status helps
women to opt for sedentary lifestyle which is considered to cause weight gain (5,6,41,42).
Along with a number of studies, this study equally
opined that fraction of overweight and obesity increases with age, education, and parity of the women (19,43,44). The multinomial analysis found that
women aged 35 years and above are 5 times more
likely to be overweight and 12 times more likely to
be obese than women of 15-24 years. Many studies have attempted to determine the causes behind
this association between overweight or obesity
and demographic covariates. Among all, physical
activity declines, along with metabolic rate, in the
middle years of women. On the other hand, the
energy requirement decreases; therefore, even regular or routine eating may lead to weight gain. In addition, the established cultural or social values with
respect to care and diet given during and after pregnancy help women to gain more weight than ever.
Furthermore, newly-married women at young age
are more health-conscious and involved in more
physical activity than women at older ages with
children. This might be another important reason
for weight gain after childbirth among women (3).
The higher-educated women are two times more
likely to be overweight or obese than women with
no education (Table 3). Higher education opens
better employment opportunities for women and
leads to be self-dependent and for further improvement in socioeconomic status. This possibly helps
women live a life which involves less physical activity and helps access energy-dense food which is
considered to cause overweight or obesity (43,44).
Women with higher parity are more overweight or
83
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
Gouda J and Prusty RK
Table 2. Percentage distribution of overweight and obesity among poor and non-poor women in urban
India, 2005
Overweight
Background
characteristics
Poor
Obesity
Non-poor
Poor
Sample-size (N)
Non-poor
Poor
Non-poor
1.5
3,380
9,798
Age of respondent
(completed years)
15-24
25-34
3.5
7.6
0.4
9.9
21.0
2.1
6.0
2,848
8,774
14.2
31.5
4.2
13.7
2,727
9,714
Hindu
8.5
20.4
2.0
7.0
6,369
20,144
Muslim
35+
Religion
10.4
19.8
2.7
8.1
1,685
3,728
Christian
7.7
15.7
0.7
4.8
673
2,893
Others
6.5
23.0
3.7
9.6
214
1,490
Caste
SCs1 & STs2
6.6
15.3
1.4
3.6
2,924
5,974
OBCs3
9.8
19.2
2.3
7.0
3,444
8,103
Others
9.4
22.2
2.4
8.6
2,224
13,057
No education
8.7
20.1
2.5
6.2
3,941
3,363
Up to primary
8.2
21.4
1.9
7.1
1,726
2,640
Up to secondary
9.0
18.5
1.6
7.1
3,128
16,098
11.9
23.1
1.9
7.4
159
6,182
Not working
8.9
19.8
2.2
7.5
5,501
20,939
Working
8.6
20.4
1.8
5.8
3,448
7,293
4.0
7.5
0.3
1.6
1,940
8,230
10.1
25.1
2.6
9.3
7,017
20,057
0
5.3
9.5
0.7
2.3
2,570
9,993
1-2
9.8
25.5
2.3
9.0
2,635
10,568
3+
10.4
25.9
2.9
10.5
3,751
7,726
No exposure
5.8
15.0
1.9
4.7
1,467
553
Have exposure
9.4
20.1
2.1
7.1
7,486
27,732
North
9.6
21.6
2.0
8.8
1,030
6,216
Northeast
6.5
15.5
1.0
2.9
1,255
4,451
East
7.0
20.0
0.8
6.0
1,241
2,600
West
7.7
18.8
3.0
7.1
1,112
6,078
Central
5.9
17.4
0.9
5.7
1,464
3,606
24.9
3.4
9.9
2,854
5,335
Education
Up to higher
Work status
Marital status
Never married
Married
Parity
Media exposure
Region
South
1
12.1
2
3
Scheduled castes; Scheduled tribes; Other backward classes
84
JHPN
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
Gouda J and Prusty RK
Table 3. Multinomial logistic regression showing relative risk of overweight and obesity among women
in urban India, 2005-2006
Covariate
RRR
Overweight
(95% CI)
Obesity
RRR
(95% CI)
Economic background
Poor®
Non-poor
2.18***
2.016-2.366
2.84***
2.449-3.302
Age (completed years)
15-24®
25-34
2.59***
2.368-2.847
3.94***
3.260-4.755
35+
5.28***
4.787-5.816
12.31***
10.163-14.904
Religion
Hindu®
Muslim
1.18***
1.086-1.275
1.37***
1.214-1.552
Christian
0.86
0.774-0.963
0.86
0.713-1.041
Others
1.295**
1.148-1.462
1.71***
1.437-1.024
Caste
SC1 & ST2®
OBC3
1.08**
0.997-1.170
1.31***
1.135-1.502
Others
1.33***
1.237-1.438
1.73***
1.510-1.969
Education
No education®
Primary
1.18***
1.069-1.301
1.19**
1.004-1.400
Secondary
1.53***
1.409-1.658
2.03***
1.777-2.319
Higher
1.97***
1.783-2.173
2.39***
2.030-2.801
Marital status
Never-married®
Married
1.86***
1.636-2.112
2.14***
1.680-2.729
Parity
0®
1-2
1.02
0.918-1.143
0.95**
0.793-1.146
3+
0.97
0.866-1.096
0.99**
0.815-1.201
Work status
Not working®
Working
0.83***
0.784-0.882
0.65***
0.591-0.719
Media exposure
No exposure®
Have exposure
1.65***
1.417-1.918
1.45***
1.124-1.880
Region
North®
Northeast
0.77***
0.693-0.846
0.41***
0.339-0.491
East
0.86**
0.776-0.946
0.61***
0.518-0.720
West
0.85***
0.780-0.918
0.82
0.724-0.926
Central
0.82**
0.749-0.901
0.66***
0.571-0.769
South
1.41***
1.299-1.534
1.48***
1.301-1.672
®
Reference group; **p<0.05; ***p<0.01; 1Scheduled castes; 2Scheduled tribes; 3Other backward classes;
Pseudo R2=0.1291
Volume 32 | Number 1 | March 2014
85
Inluence of economic status on overweight and obesity
obese in India. This generally implies that women’s
higher age with declining physical activity helps
accumulate more weight.
Women with media exposure are about two times
more at risk of being overweight or obese. This corroborates the findings of many other studies that
proportion of overweight and obesity increases with
media exposure (43). Media, in general, are a powerful tool which educates the mass on a number of
important aspects, including healthy life practices.
However, it also gives exposure to a number of energy-saving machineries, energy-dense or junk food
items, which tend to influence women to adopt;
this is considered a leading cause of overweight or
obesity. Moreover, viewing television for longer duration can also increase the physical inactiveness
and helps in weight gain. This is more common
among the non-poor women since they have the
ability to pay for all these expensive energy-dense
food and other luxuries in urban India. Women in
southern regions are more overweight and obese
than women from other regions of India. Southern
states in India have better socioeconomic indicators than other states. In these states, female education is comparatively higher than other states in
India (45,46). Moreover, the proportion of women
living below the poverty line is comparatively less
in southern than the northern or eastern regions in
India (47). So, having this favourable environment
in these states, women apparently enjoy a better
life or can have a sedentary lifestyle which further
may lead to overweight or obesity (47).
In addition, this study can correctly conclude that
married women are more overweight or obese. As
an attempt to find the possible reasons behind this,
a study concluded that exiting the dating market
decreases one’s incentive to maintain their appearance and leads to an increase in body-weight. However, the authors humbly appeal to the readers not
to use the paper as opprobrium against marriage
(48).
Limitations
There are a number of measurement issues which
need to be kept in mind while considering the
findings of this study. First, the survey considered
only the weight and height of women to measure
the prevalence of overweight and obesity in India.
However, there are many other sophisticated means
to determine the overweight and obesity condition
of a woman in a better way. Waist-circumference
is one among those tools which can give a better
measurement on these issues, especially in Asian
86
Gouda J and Prusty RK
region (49,50). Second, the survey collected limited information on lifestyle, physical activity, and
diet. Although, the demographic, socioeconomic
and lifestyle factors incorporated in this study may
capture much of the variation, more detailed information on these subjects in future studies can help
understand the causes of overweight and obesity
better.
Conclusions
The study found that the problem of overweight
and obesity is more of an urban concern. Another
critical outcome of the study is that women of nonpoor households are more overweight and obese
than their counterparts from poor families. However, India’s health policy often follows pro-poor and
pro-rural approach and, thus, merely overlooks the
problem of overweight and obesity. For an illustration, the flagship programme National Health
Rural Mission (NRHM), funded by central government, has a number of building blocks or measures
to address anaemia and undernutrition prevalent
among women and children in rural India. Yet, the
programme does not recognize the growing epidemic of overweight and obesity among women
in urban India. With this backdrop, the growing
demand which appears before the Government or
the urban health planners is to address this rising
epidemic with equal importance. A timely prevention will reduce the burden of many chronic comorbidities, like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases,
hypertension and infertility on the health system
in India (51). This can be achieved either through
undertaking separate urban health programme or
incorporating special clause in the proposed National Urban Health Program, citing the importance of healthy diet and physical exercise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Dr. Sanjay K. Mohanty
and Mr. Abhishek Kumar for their constructive
comments and suggestions on various sections of
the paper. Authors would also like to thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions towards improvement of the paper.
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