Background:The blood pressure and anthropometric measurements are important for evaluating the health of children, adolescents as well as adults.Aim:The aim is to study the blood pressure and body dimensions and to find out the prevalence of overweight/obesity and hypertension among adults.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted of all the people belonging to the Punjabi community, residing in Roshanara area and Jaina building in Delhi, for the past 20 years and aged 18-50 years. The men were engaged in transport business and women were mainly housewives.Results:Mean values of all the measurements, that is, height, weight, upper arm circumference, pulse rate, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were higher among males as compared with females, except skinfold thicknesses. Body mass index (BMI) and fat percentage was found to be higher among females as compared with males. There was a significant positive correlation between BMI, fat percentage, and blood pressure both SBP as well as DBP. Odds ratio showed that overweight/obese subjects were more likely to have hypertension than those with normal BMI.Conclusion:Prevalence of prehypertension among overweight/obese suggested an early clinical detection of prehypertension and intervention including life style modification, particularly weight management.

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Objective:To study the relationship of ethnicity with overweight/obesity, variation in adiposity levels, regional distribution of fat and its impact on cardio-respiratory health among selected ethnic groups.Materials and methods:A cross-sectional study was carried out among 300 young adults of three ethnic groups from different geographical regions of India ranging in age from 20 to 30 years. Stature, weight, circumferences, body fat percentage, and skinfold thicknesses were measured. Obesity indices like body mass index (BMI), grand mean thickness (GMT), waist hip ratio (WHR), waist height ratio (WHtR), and conicity index (CI) were computed. Cardio-respiratory health indicators such as lung functions including forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory ratio (FER), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), breath holding time (BHT), and systolic and diastolic BP (blood pressure) were taken and associated with obesity indices.Results:General body fat deposition, assessed by BMI, GMT, and fat percentage, was found to be the highest among Delhi females and males. However, central adiposity as assessed from WHR, WHtR, and CI was found to be significantly higher among the Manipur subjects signifying a relatively more androidal pattern of fat deposition. Most of the inter-group differences for adiposity indices were significant; however, it was not so in the case of blood pressure among different ethnic groups. On the other hand, the respiratory efficiency varied significantly between different ethnic groups. Ethnicity, adiposity, and cardio-respiratory health were found to be interrelated.Conclusions:Subjects belonging to three ethnic groups showed marked differences in different body dimension, adiposity indices, and cardio-respiratory health. Central obesity has been found to be a better pointer for cardiovascular health risk. There were ethnic and gender differences with respect to adiposity measures and cardio-respiratory health indicators

Over the last two decades, many African countries have undergone dietary and nutrition transitions fueled by globalization, rapid urbanization and development. These changes have altered African food environments and subsequently, dietary behaviors, including food acquisition and consumption. Dietary patterns associated with the nutrition transition have contributed to Africa's complex burden of malnutrition - obesity and other diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs), along with persistent food insecurity and undernutrition. Available evidence links unhealthy or obesogenic food environments (including those that market and avail energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages) with suboptimal diets and associated adverse health outcomes. Elsewhere, governments have responded with policies to improve food environments. However, in Africa the necessary research and policy action have received insufficient attention. Contextual evidence to motivate, enable and create supportive food environments in Africa for better population health is urgently needed. In November 2020, the Measurement, Evaluation, Accountability and Leadership Support for Non-communicable diseases Prevention Project (MEALS4NCDs) convened the first Africa Food Environment Research Network Meeting (FERN2020). This three-day virtual meeting brought researchers from around the world to deliberate on future directions and research priorities related to improving food environments and nutrition across the African continent. The stakeholders shared experiences, best practices, challenges and opportunities for improving the healthiness of food environments and related policies in low- and middle-income countries. In this article, we summarize the proceedings and research priorities identified in the meeting to advance the food environment research agenda in Africa, and thus contribute to the promotion of healthier food environments to prevent DR-NCDs, and other forms of malnutrition.

In the present study, the contribution of various biological and lifestyle factors toward progression to hypertension are examined among menopausal and postmenopausal women. A cross-sectional study among 245 women of 20 to 65 years was conducted. Besides blood pressure, fat percentage using bio-electric impedance analyzer and adiposity indices such as body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-height ratio (WHtR) were taken. Mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and multinomial logistic were used to analyze the data. Statistically significant differences (p< .001) for blood pressure among postmenopausal and premenopausal women were found. Among both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, the prehypertensive and hypertensive group showed significant differences with the normotensive women for body weight (p< .005), regional obesity, and general obesity. Low educational level, working status of women, socioeconomic status, nuclear family setup, postmenopausal status, and obesity were found to be the likely risk factors for prehypertension or hypertension among women.