Body Mass Index and Body Fat Percent of Adult Women in Kochi, Kerala

Though Kerala has registered a significant improvement in key health care indicators, the health situation in the state reflects a paradox. Being a state in developmental transition, Kerala faces the double burden of pre-transition diseases like under nutrition and infectious diseases as well as post transition chronic degenerative diseases associated with overweight and obesity. In Kerala the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased many folds in the past few decades. The substantial proportion of underweight persons together with continuing high overall levels of overweight and obese persons produce dual burden of nutritional disorders for the state. The objective of the study was to elicit information on Body Mass Index (BMI), skin fold thickness and body fat percent of adult Women of Kochi, in Kerala. Adult (18-60 years), non pregnant and non lactating women from Kochi corporation area in Ernakulam district of Kerala was selected for the conduct of the present study. Kochi Corporation is divided into 72 wards comprising Urban, Rural, Coastal and Unclassified wards out of which 25 wards were selected as study locations to represent the corporation. A total of 1288 adult women were selected as study sample. BMI classification of WHO , was followed to categorise the sub sample for the in-depth study on the body composition pattern in relation to different BMI. Only 55.4 per cent of women were found to have normal weight (BMI between 18.5-24.9). Among subjects studied there was a higher percentage overweight/obese category than underweight. All the four skin fold measurements of the subjects showed a steep rise as per increase in BMI. Subjects had a higher skin fold in the late adult hood (30-60 yrs) compared to early adulthood. There was a direct proportion between BMI and per cent body fat; at higher BMI per cent body fat was also high.