Assessing the Rising Tide: a Comprehensive Analysis of Overweight and Obesity Prevalence among Adults

Background: The worldwide surge in overweight and obesity levels poses a serious challenge to public health. Obesity has been doubled since 1990s. Overweight can be defined as having BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and obesity as a BMI ≥30kg/m2. In Kerala, NFHS data showing increasing obesity rate higher than the national average. According to the WHO, in 2022, nearly 43% of adults worldwide were classified as overweight, while 16% fell into the obese category. The study explore the prevalence and need for the awareness and intervention to step down from obesity. Objective: To study the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional analysis was carried out to evaluate the extent of overweight and obesity among adults. Data were collected from various sites and colleges of Pathanamthitta district. The study examined 729 participants over a six-month timeframe (November 2023- April 2024). The participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire with their knowledge, then conducted an awareness class after 1-month similar questionnaire is provided to evaluate the progress of the research participants. Data collection involved one-on-one interviews with willing participants who completed questionnaires. Results: The prevalence of overweight was found to be 72.23%, whereas 19.75% were obese class 1, 6.48% were obese class 2 and 1.54% were obese class 3 based on the BMI. Conclusion: The result of the study points out the lack of physical activity and improper dietary pattern has act as major factor to being overweight and obese. The sedentary lifestyle practices should be avoided It is important to have future developmental and managerial strategies to prevent from overweight and obesity.