Obesity and its Link to Undiagnosed Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension in Rural Parts of Western India

BACKGROUND: Obesity and overweight are becoming major health concerns worldwide. Hence, we studied the association between overweight and obesity with new-onset diabetes and hypertension in a selected rural population. METHODOLOGY: Community health workers made house-to-house visits, inviting adults >20 years of age who were at a higher risk of diabetes, from a predefined rural area of Maharashtra, to visit a mobile diabetes clinic operating in a hub and spoke manner. Sociodemographic data and anthropometric measurements were recorded. BMI and waist circumference was classified according to the WHO recommended cutoffs for Asians. Subjects with capillary blood fasting glucose of ≥126 mg/dL or random glucose of ≥200 mg/dL by glucometer were diagnosed as diabetes and blood pressure of ≥140/90 mmHg by sphygmomanometer were diagnosed as hypertension. Subjects with a known history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension were excluded. RESULTS: Out of 29,324 total population, 16.5% of subjects were overweight and 26.4% were obese. Mean ± SD of BMI of the participants was 22.9 ± 4.1 kg/m(2) in males and 22.4 ± 4.2 kg/m(2) in females. Around 35% of males and 30.5% of females had a high waist circumference of ≥90 cm and ≥80 cm, respectively, 20.5% of subjects had newly diagnosed hypertension, and 11.4% of subjects had newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus. The occurrence of newly diagnosed hypertension and diabetes showed an increasing trend with increasing BMI. CONCLUSION: Our community-based screening suggested a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in rural India. There was a high prevalence of newly diagnosed hypertension and diabetes in this population.