Regional Disparities in Dual Burden of Malnutrition among Rural Men in India: Evidence from National Family Health Survey

The steadily increase in prevalence of overweight/obesity coexisted with under-nutrition can pose a major public health problem among adult populations in most of developing countries. In India, the prevalence of overweight/obesity is increasing rapidly, particularly among men. So an attempt was made to study the regional disparities in duel burden of malnutrition among rural men aged 15-54 years in India. Methods: Data from fourth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16) of India was used for this study. Totally, 672,1779 men aged 15-54 years were interviewed from rural areas of India. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to quantify the results. Results: A total of 23% of men aged 15-54 years in rural regions of India were underweight and 15% were overweight or obese. The risk of underweight was highest in central regions followed by west and east regions, in men in younger age and among unmarried subjects. Overweight/obesity was more prevalent in southern regions followed by north and west regions, among men in older age, and in married cases. Educational level, wealth index, and access to media were positively associated with overweight/obesity. Conclusion: In India, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was shown to be double among men in rural areas; whereas underweight is still prevalent that denotes to an alarming and necessity for an effective policy and program implementations to address this situation.