84% of Kashmir adults lead sedentary lives: Study

Srinagar, Mar 1: A concerning 84.2 percent of adults in Kashmir are physically inactive, leading lives that involve sitting, not having any type of exercise or walking.

The sedentary lifestyles have led to one in every two people weighing in the obese category, spiking their risks for diabetes and other diseases related to extra fat in the body.

The largest study measuring the prevalence of diabetes, prediabetes hypertension and obesity in Kashmir and Ladakh carried out by an expert team from SKIMS Soura under the Indian Council of Medical Research (IndiaB) is an eye-opener in many ways.

Released over the last leg of 2024, the data showed 55.3 percent of people in Kashmir are obese.

According to the World Health Organisation, overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.

“A Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25 is considered overweight, and over 30 is obese,” it said.

Obesity is caused by a number of factors resulting in an imbalance between calories consumed and calories burned.

The excess consumed calories are stored as fat in the body.

IndiaB studied 2510 participants, the largest ever sample size, of which 70 percent belonged to rural areas.

It found only 15.8 percent of the studied population had an active lifestyle, and the remaining 84.2 percent were classified as “inactive”.

In 2010, a study by SKIMS Soura found 16 percent of people aged between 20 and 40 years were obese while the percentage of the diabetic population in this age group was just over 5 percent.

The IndiaB study showed in 14 years, the percentage of the obese population increased by nearly 250 percent and crossed 55 percent.

The diabetic population in Kashmir was found to be 7.8 percent.

There is a wide gap between rural and urban diabetes burden.

In urban areas, 13.1 percent of the population is affected, compared to 5.6 percent in rural regions.

Obesity has been found to be closely linked to heart disease, stroke, Type-2 diabetes and even some cancers.

It has also been linked to mental health issues.

In urban Kashmir, the study found 32.4 percent of the population had hypertension and 16.7 percent had hypertension.

The study also found a lack of awareness about obesity, diabetes and their impact on lives.

Just 55 percent of the population knows that diabetes is preventable while 51 percent know that diabetes affects other organs of the body.

Doctors have expressed the need for intensified awareness regarding the effects of obesity, and healthcare authorities are investing in building a campaign on the hazards of a sedentary lifestyle.