Survey results on prevalence and factors leading to Obesity

1. Survey on prevalence and factors leading to obesity
(Summary of findings)
Sometime back, AyurData had initiated an online survey on the above topic. On the whole
there was poor response to this study (53 entries) but the results are presented here briefly to
meet the obligation from our side. The technical details are limited to the maximum extent as
this report is being presented to a general audience.
After excluding pregnant ladies from the entries, we were left with just 50 observations coming
from people scattered over India and other countries. People had been contacted through
email, WhatsApp and Facebook mainly. The prevalence estimate is thus not highly reliable
but there was no hindrance on the inferences on the association aspect. The age ranged from
19 to 67 years and the BMI ranged from 18.3 to 38.6. As per the current international
standards, only 19(38%) people belonged to the normal BMI range (18.5 to <25) and the rest
31(62%) were either in overweight or obese classes. That is not a comfortable situation by
any standards.
Both male and female categories were represented equally in the sample. The participants
had mostly (80%) nonvegetarian food habit. Only around 25 percent were consuming high
amounts of processed food, sweets, ghee and fried items. Subjects engaged in at least 30
minutes of exercise or not in nearly equal proportions. Similarly, nearly half of them were facing
stressful conditions. Around 15 percent of the participants were in some diseased conditions.
In the multiple regression equation, only age and the diseased condition showed significant
association with the BMI. BMI was increasing with age and the diseased condition was
bringing down the BMI. In order to eliminate the nonsignificant terms from the model, stepwise
regression was carried out which reduced the independent variables to just the disease factor.
The adjusted coefficient of determination (a measure of goodness of fit) of the reduced model
was 34 percent. The residuals of the model did not show any abnormality.
On the whole, the direction of effect of the factors leading to obesity was as expected but some
of the coefficients did not turn out statistically significant due to the poor sample size. It is
however, surprising that nearly 60 percent of the subjects sampled showed overweight or
obese status perhaps due to the nonvegetarian food habits, lack of exercise and stressful
living conditions.
AyurData Team