CitationMondal N, Timungpi R, Sen J, Bose K. Socio-economic and demographic correlates of overweight and obesity: A study on the Research ABSTRACTBackground: Excess adiposity is a chronic condition that contributes to non-communicable disease (NCD) related morbidities, mortalities and causes public health problems. Objectives: The objectives of the present community based cross-sectional study were to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and its socio-economic and demographic concomitants among a group of Karbi women of Assam, Northeast India. Material and Methods: The study was carried out among 600 Karbi married women aged 20-49 years in Karbi-Anglong district of Assam, Northeast India. Height and weight were recorded and body mass index (BMI= weight (kg)/ height 2 (m

Neck circumference (NC) is an anthropometric measurement of differentiating body fat distributions and a marker of upper subcutaneous adiposity. The present study highlights the association and importance of NC as a suitable proxy screening measure of overweight/obesity as compared to the conventional anthropometric variables used among Indian adults. The present community based cross-sectional study was undertaken among 1169 Karbi adults (males: 625; females: 544) residing in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, Northeast India, who were selected through a multistage stratified random sampling method. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and NC were recorded using standard procedures. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated and prevalence of overweight/obesity was assessed using standard cut-offs. The prevalence of obesity using BMI (≥25.00 kg m -2 ) was 15.52% and 15.26% among males and females, respectively (p≥0.05).The prevalence of obesity using NC was observed to be significantly higher among males (48.80%) than females (19.12%) (p<0.01). The binary logistic regression analysis showed that NC predicted obesity over the conventional anthropometric variables with reasonable accuracy (p<0.01). The ROC-AUC analysis showed a relatively greater significant association between BMI, WC and HC and NC for obesity (p<0.01). Thus, NC appears to be a potentially simple, easyto-use screening measure for predicting obesity among adults. Further studies are required to validate its use for screening of obesity among other ethnic populations in India.

Background: Neck circumference (NC) is a relatively new anthropometric measure of differentiating body fat distribution and considered as a marker of upper subcutaneous adiposity. Aims and Objectives: The present study was undertaken to assess the suitability and cut-offs estimation of NC to determine overweight and obesity in Asian Indian adults. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried out among 1830 adults (914 males; 916 females) aged 20-49 years of Karbi-Anglong, Northeast-India, using multistage-stratified sampling method. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and neck circumference (NC) were recorded using standard procedures. The body mass index (BMI kg m−2) was calculated and overweight and obesity were assessed using standard cut-offs. Results: Linear and binary logistic regression analyses showed that NC had a better predictive value of BMI (p<0.001). The ROC-AUC results showed that NC seems to have relatively better predictive value in greater adiposity (BMI≥30.00 kg m−2) among both males (AUC 0.83, 95% CI: 0.81-0.86) and females (AUC 0.88, 95%CI: 0.85-0.89) (p<0.01). The cut-offs of NC were observed to be 36.0 cm and 38.0 cm (in males) and 30.9 cm and 33.0 cm (in females) for BMI ≥25.00 kg m−2 and BMI 30 kg m−2, respectively. Conclusion: Further studies should be undertaken to determine and validate the existing and/or newly proposed cut-offs among larger samples for pan-Indian cut-offs for the assessment of overweight and obesity and related risks of non-communicable diseases and metabolic disorders.