IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v134y2020ics0305750x20301765.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dramatic rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in India: Obesity transition and the looming health care crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Siddiqui, Zakaria
  • Donato, Ronald

Abstract

The dramatic increase in overweight/obesity prevalence in India and the concomitant increase in nutrition-related non-communicable diseases present critical health policy challenges. This paper analyses two successive nationally representative household datasets – the 2015–16 and 2005–06 National Family Health Survey rounds – to discern the extent of shifts in overweight/obesity prevalence underway in India and the implications for informing policy. Unique features of the study are the focus given to analysing overweight/obesity across different sub-populations, based on gender, rurality and socio-economic status, and the diverse pattern of the prevalence across individual states over time. A fixed effects model using state-time interactions is used to analyse state-level variations and time-dependent effects across particular sub-populations. Despite the considerable increase in the prevalence of overweight/obesity over the past decade and a degree of convergence across population cohorts, the results show that this has been accompanied by considerable variation and divergence between states. Our findings reveal that a select few economically advanced states, most noticeably for wealthy urban female cohorts, experienced negative time-dependent effects where the predicted rates of overweight/obesity declined over the decade. However, some less developed and more populous states experienced positive time-dependent effects such that by 2015–16 they had attained overweight/obesity rates that had overtaken those of richer states. Also, interestingly, beyond a particular threshold education exhibits a negative relationship in the likelihood of overweight/obesity for females but not for males. Policymakers need to understand the driving factors underpinning the state-level differences and the changing patterns across cohorts over time, and to formulate regionally–based policies that specifically target these differences rather than pursue a single policy approach. Moreover, India’s health system needs to be re-orientated to manage burgeoning chronic disease conditions and to address the burden placed on the poor given that such health expenditure is mostly privately incurred.

Suggested Citation

  • Siddiqui, Zakaria & Donato, Ronald, 2020. "The dramatic rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in India: Obesity transition and the looming health care crisis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s0305750x20301765
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20301765
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105050?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sengupta, Angan & Angeli, Federica & Syamala, Thelakkat S. & Dagnelie, Pieter C. & Schayck, C.P. van, 2015. "Overweight and obesity prevalence among Indian women by place of residence and socio-economic status: Contrasting patterns from ‘underweight states’ and ‘overweight states’ of India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 161-169.
    2. Cherry Law & Iain Fraser & Matloob Piracha, 2020. "Nutrition Transition and Changing Food Preferences in India," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 118-143, February.
    3. Toshiaki Aizawa, 2019. "Transition of the BMI distribution in India: evidence from a distributional decomposition analysis," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 3-36, April.
    4. Pampel, Fred C. & Denney, Justin T. & Krueger, Patrick M., 2012. "Obesity, SES, and economic development: A test of the reversal hypothesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 1073-1081.
    5. J. V. Meenakshi, 2016. "Trends and patterns in the triple burden of malnutrition in India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 115-134, November.
    6. Hilal Al Shamsi & Abdullah Ghthaith Almutairi & Sulaiman Salim Al Mashrafi, 2018. "Food and Nutrition Systems in India Change as a Result of the Nutrition Transition: The Implications on the Food and Nutrition System in Relating to Changes in the Food Supply and Dietary Intakes," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(9), pages 1-74, September.
    7. Richard Williams, 2012. "Using the margins command to estimate and interpret adjusted predictions and marginal effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(2), pages 308-331, June.
    8. Luisa Corrado & Roberta Distante, 2012. "Obesity is Contagious! Evidence from US Data," Review of Environment, Energy and Economics - Re3, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, November.
    9. Tara Templin & Tiago Cravo Oliveira Hashiguchi & Blake Thomson & Joseph Dieleman & Eran Bendavid, 2019. "The overweight and obesity transition from the wealthy to the poor in low- and middle-income countries: A survey of household data from 103 countries," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-15, November.
    10. Barik, Debasis & Arokiasamy, Perianayagam, 2016. "Rising Health Expenditure Due to Non-Communicable Diseases in India: An Outlook," MPRA Paper 77223, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Nov 2016.
    11. Huffman, Sonya K. & Rizov, Marian, 2007. "Determinants of obesity in transition economies: The case of Russia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 379-391, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valentina Alvarez-Saavedra & Pierre Levasseur & Suneha Seetahul, 2023. "The Role of Gender Inequality in the Obesity Epidemic: A Case Study from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(7), pages 980-996, July.
    2. Archana Agnihotri & Brinda Viswanathan, 2021. "Gender Differences in Double Burden of Malnutrition in India: Quantile Regression Estimates," Working Papers 2021-208, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    3. Archana Dang & Indrani Gupta, 2021. "Obesity and its Impact on COVID Occurrence: Evidence from India," IEG Working Papers 430, Institute of Economic Growth.
    4. Alice Sims & Paige van der Pligt & Preethi John & Jyotsna Kaushal & Gaganjot Kaur & Fiona H McKay, 2021. "Food Insecurity and Dietary Intake among Rural Indian Women: An Exploratory Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-11, May.
    5. Archana Dang, 2023. "Time preferences and obesity: Evidence from urban India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(4), pages 487-514, July.
    6. Aiyar, Anaka & Dhingra, Sunaina & Pingali, Prabhu, 2021. "Transitioning to an obese India: Demographic and structural determinants of the rapid rise in overweight incidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    7. Archana Dang & Indrani Gupta, 2023. "Overnutrition and COVID Prevalence in India: Evidence and Implications," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 17(1), pages 44-59, April.
    8. Ghosh, Pritam & Rohatgi, Pratima & Bose, Kaushik, 2022. "Determinants of time-trends in exclusivity and continuation of breastfeeding in India: An investigation from the National Family Health Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    9. Lopez Barrera, Emiliano & Shively, Gerald, 2022. "Excess calorie availability and adult BMI: A cohort analysis of patterns and trends for 156 countries from 1890 to 2015," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aiyar, Anaka & Dhingra, Sunaina & Pingali, Prabhu, 2021. "Transitioning to an obese India: Demographic and structural determinants of the rapid rise in overweight incidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Aiyar, Anaka & Rahman, Andaleeb & Pingali, Prabhu, 2021. "India’s rural transformation and rising obesity burden," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Ghosh, sudeshna, 2017. "Globalization and Obesity: Asian Experiences of ‘Globesity’," MPRA Paper 94601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Debabrata Talukdar & Satheesh Seenivasan & Adrian J Cameron & Gary Sacks, 2020. "The association between national income and adult obesity prevalence: Empirical insights into temporal patterns and moderators of the association using 40 years of data across 147 countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Rich, Kate & von Fintel, Dieter, 2024. "Childhood circumstances, social mobility and the obesity transition: Evidence from South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Sakaue, Katsuki, 2018. "Informal fee charge and school choice under a free primary education policy: Panel data evidence from rural Uganda," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 112-127.
    7. Craig Gundersen & David R. Just & Fei Men, 2017. "Mothers' Within-Marriage Economic Prospects and Later Food Security: Does Marital Outcome Matter?," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 682-702, November.
    8. K. P. Kannan, 2022. "India’s Elusive Quest for Inclusive Development: An Employment Perspective," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 579-623, September.
    9. Brache, Jose & Felzensztein, Christian, 2019. "Exporting firm’s engagement with trade associations: Insights from Chile," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 25-35.
    10. Allain, Marie-Laure & Chambolle, Claire & Rey, Patrick & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2021. "Vertical integration as a source of hold-up: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    11. Liu, Yulong & Yu, Yang, 2018. "Institutions, firm resources and the foreign establishment mode choices of Chinese firms: The moderating role of home regional institutional development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 111-121.
    12. Anna Garriga & Sebastià Sarasa & Paolo Berta, 2015. "Mother’s educational level and single motherhood: Comparing Spain and Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(42), pages 1165-1210.
    13. E. Keith Smith & Dennis Kolcava & Thomas Bernauer, 2024. "Stringent sustainability regulations for global supply chains are supported across middle-income democracies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K. & Luo, Biliang, 2018. "Aging population, farm succession, and farmland usage: Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 437-445.
    15. Pedro Garcia‐del‐Barrio & Pablo Agnese, 2023. "To comply or not to comply? How a UEFA wage‐to‐revenue requirement might affect the sport and managerial performance of soccer clubs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 767-786, March.
    16. Hussein, Mohamud & Law, Cherry & Fraser, Iain, 2021. "An analysis of food demand in a fragile and insecure country: Somalia as a case study," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Sen, Kanchan Kumar & Karmaker, Shamal Chandra & Hosan, Shahadat & Chapman, Andrew J. & Uddin, Md Kamal & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2023. "Energy poverty alleviation through financial inclusion: Role of gender in Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    18. Kimberlee A. Shauman, 2017. "Gender Differences in the Early Employment Outcomes of STEM Doctorates," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-26, March.
    19. Zasimova, Liudmila, 2022. "The association between fast-food consumption and job-related factors among Russian adults," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    20. repec:hal:cdiwps:halshs-02532955 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Lisette Ibanez & Sébastien Roussel, 2022. "The impact of nature video exposure on pro-environmental behavior: An experimental investigation," Post-Print hal-03847453, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s0305750x20301765. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.