PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AND ITS LINK BETWEEN VARIOUS DISORDERS IN A SEMI URBAN DISTRICT IN KERALA

Overweight and obesity rates have been increasing sharply over recent decades in all industrialized countries, as well as in many lower income countries. According to the WHO World health statistics report 2012, globally one in six adults is obese and nearly 2.8 million individuals die each year due to overweight or obesity ¹. Obesity is a close marker of important aspects of individual life styles, such as diet and physical activity, and is also an important risk factor for major chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain type of cancer. Obesity is also associated with negative labour market outcomes, in terms of both wages and employment, particularly for women ². Several studies show that education has a positive impact on health and well-being ³.This is a prospective observational study, conducted with 750 patients in Kerala. The study conducted strictly observed the prevalence of obesity in a particular area of kerala, risk factors, concomitant disorders and awareness of patients about obesity and related illness in detailed and elaborate manner. Majority of patients were not aware about the seriousness and health hazards of obesity. Family history has a strong impact on the incidence of obesity. The major concomitant disorder was hypertension and cardiovascular disorder. Good proportion of the patients were started the initiatives on weight loss, but majority of the efforts were lasts within 6 months, as a result the major outcome of the weight loss initiatives was failure, and the reason for the failure was mainly due to the loss of will after the starting of weight loss initiatives