In (Caballero, 2007). Developing countries are now
In the last few decades of the twentieth century, overweight and obesityhave become a major threat for the higher income countries. It has already reached theepidemic level in developed countries of America, Europe with prevalence rateof 63 and 59 per 1000 respectively (WHO estimates 2016). Obesity has been found to be a strong predictorof several well-established risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality.They are directly linkedwith the rise in non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension etc. The global increase in overweight and obesityat the young age is directly linked with the risk of cardiovascular and otherchronic diseases. Worldwide, at least 2.
8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese,and an estimated 35.8 million (2.3%) of global DALYs are caused by overweightor obesity (WHO). Also there is a concern that therise in global obesity will slow down or even reverse the significant mortalityreductions experienced by the high income countries in the past few decades(Swinburn et al. 2011). Reversing the obesity epidemicshould be an urgent priority (Mokdad et al.
, 2003). Earlier, higher proportion of populationsuffering from problems of over-weight and obesity resided in higher income andindustrialized countries (Caballero, 2007). Developing countries are now goingunder various transitions like demographic, epidemiological, economic, as wellas nutritional transition. Due to this, for countries like India, the issue ismore serious. Earlier developing countries had high prevalence of under-nutritionbut now there is a double burden of under-nutrition as well as over-nutrition. In developing countries, malnutrition is amedical as well as a social disorder (Sidhu & Kaushal, 2005). This double burden ofover-nutrition and under-nutrition is now a public health challenge indeveloping countries.
Under-nutrition is still a significant cause of deaths ofchildren in less developed and developing countries.Although eradicating hunger was a part of Millennium Development Goal,undernutrition still continues to be prevalent in low-income and middle-incomecountries throughout the world. Almost all the health and nutrition policies in the developing countriesis emphasising on undernutrition but at the same time, rising prevalence ofover-nutrition is now a serious health threat. Childhood obesity was consideredas an issue in the economically rich countries, but now this problem hasstarted appearing in the less developed countries also. Childhood obesity isnow a recent epidemic with high magnitude in India (Tanu Midha et al., 2012).
Dueto rise in overweight and obesity in the recent decades, it is now importantfor the countries to focus on regular monitoring of prevalence of it in thepopulation.
