Epidemiology of Overweight in Under-Five Children in India: Insights from National Family Health Survey

Epidemiology of Overweight in Under-Five Children in India: Insights from National Family Health Survey | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Epidemiology of Overweight in Under-Five Children in India: Insights from National Family Health Survey Rukman Manapurath, Ranadip Chowdhury, Sunita taneja, Nita Bhandari, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Childhood overweight is not only an immediate health concern due to its implications but also significantly increases the risk of persistent obesity and consequently cardiovascular diseases in the future, posing a serious threat to public health. The objective of this study was to examine the trends and associated factors of childhood overweight in India, using nationally representative data from three rounds of the National Family Health Survey. For the primary analysis, we used data from 199,375 children aged 0 - 59 months from NFHS-5. Overweight was defined as Body mass index-for-age Z (BMI Z) score >+2 SD above the World Health Organization growth standards median. We compared the prevalence estimates of childhood overweight with NFHS-3 and NFHS-4. Potential risk factors were identified through multiple logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of overweight increased from 1·9% in NFHS-3 to 4·0% in NFHS-5, a trend seen across most states and union territories, with the Northeast region showing the highest prevalence. The BMI Z-score distributions from the latest two surveys indicated that the increase in overweight was substantially larger than the decrease in underweight. The consistent upward trend in the prevalence across different demographic groups raises important public health concerns. While undernutrition rates have remained relatively stable, there has been a noticeable rise in the incidence of overweight during the same time frame. The increasing trend of overweight among children in India calls for immediate action. Health Policy Nutrition & Dietetics Pediatric Obesity Health Surveys Survey data analysis under-five children India Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4910583","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":340000316,"identity":"5f439895-810d-4a2f-a0e7-40e11e766673","order_by":0,"name":"Rukman Manapurath","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bergen","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rukman","middleName":"","lastName":"Manapurath","suffix":""},{"id":340000425,"identity":"e6acf9fe-f5a3-4880-91f5-a5c3d3cc2aba","order_by":1,"name":"Ranadip Chowdhury","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Society for Applied Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ranadip","middleName":"","lastName":"Chowdhury","suffix":""},{"id":340001352,"identity":"590312bf-0c28-4912-ba10-9ec797829e09","order_by":2,"name":"Sunita taneja","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Society for Applied Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sunita","middleName":"","lastName":"taneja","suffix":""},{"id":340001500,"identity":"36729d1c-9f07-4cdf-ad6a-fdb4a686161e","order_by":3,"name":"Nita Bhandari","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Society for Applied Studies","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nita","middleName":"","lastName":"Bhandari","suffix":""},{"id":340001553,"identity":"f93be454-66cf-4028-a9b2-6f206c20fbcf","order_by":4,"name":"Tor Strand","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAvklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC+wMMDIw/wMzkAwyJDURoYQNiZp4EEDMtgQQtDGAtOQYMjERpYe99wMz44568OXvON4mHOxjy+Alq4TluwPgjodhwZ8/bbRKJZxiKJQnZxCaRxsDAk5DAuOFGLlBLG0PihgNEarHfcCPnGWlaEoFa2IjUwnOM4TBPWkLyhjPPjC0Sz0gkziToF/Y2xoc/bBJsNxxPfnjz5w6bxH4COsAA2SUSxGgYBaNgFIyCUUAIAAA6bT6Ka952ZQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Bergen","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tor","middleName":"","lastName":"Strand","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-08-14 04:10:30","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":62572691,"identity":"ebe46971-d267-4664-b9f0-f08099d62e93","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-08-16 03:58:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":514588,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscriptfile.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4910583/v1_covered_efd3743b-ea54-4025-af2c-f17bc2907f1a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eEpidemiology of Overweight in Under-Five Children in India: Insights from National Family Health Survey\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Pediatric Obesity, Health Surveys, Survey data analysis, under-five children, India","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eChildhood overweight is not only an immediate health concern due to its implications but also \u0026nbsp;significantly increases the risk of persistent obesity and consequently cardiovascular diseases in the \u0026nbsp;future, posing a serious threat to public health. The objective of this study was to examine the trends \u0026nbsp;and associated factors of childhood overweight in India, using nationally representative data from three \u0026nbsp;rounds of the National Family Health Survey. For the primary analysis, we used data from 199,375 \u0026nbsp;children aged 0 - 59 months from NFHS-5. \u0026nbsp;Overweight was defined as Body mass index-for-age Z \u0026nbsp;(BMI Z) score \u0026gt;+2 SD above the World Health Organization growth standards median. \u0026nbsp;We compared \u0026nbsp;the prevalence estimates of childhood overweight with NFHS-3 and NFHS-4. Potential risk factors were \u0026nbsp;identified through multiple logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of overweight increased from \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;1·9% in NFHS-3 to 4·0% in NFHS-5, a trend seen across most states and union territories, with the \u0026nbsp;Northeast region showing the highest prevalence. The BMI Z-score distributions from the latest two \u0026nbsp;surveys indicated that the increase in overweight was substantially larger than the decrease in \u0026nbsp;underweight. The consistent upward trend in the prevalence across different demographic groups \u0026nbsp;raises important public health concerns. While undernutrition rates have remained relatively stable, \u0026nbsp;there has been a noticeable rise in the incidence of overweight during the same time frame. The \u0026nbsp;increasing trend of overweight among children in India calls for immediate action.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Epidemiology of Overweight in Under-Five Children in India: Insights from National Family Health Survey","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-08-16 03:50:18","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4910583/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f58d32c2-91b1-4b0c-8e9a-481325d488b0","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 16th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":36046897,"name":"Health Policy"},{"id":36046898,"name":"Nutrition \u0026 Dietetics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-08-16T03:50:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-08-16 03:50:18","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4910583","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4910583","identity":"rs-4910583","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}