Measuring the risks and behavioural gaps associated with obesity an empirical study

Abstract

Introduction Malnutrition targets human beings in three forms, undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency and overnutrition. Overnutrition stands for overweight and obesity which is defined as dietary energy intake, exceeds the requirements for maintaining a healthy bodyweight, (Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, 2019). In year 1993, World Health Organization (WHO) commenced a review of interpretation of anthropometric references and in 2018 reported on worldwide prevalence of obesity that, it boosted three times between 1975 and 2016. World Health Organisation (WHO) has also declared obesity as global epidemic. Many countries are suffering from the double burden of Malnutrition like India, where undernutrition and overnutrition, both are causing mortality and morbidity. Worldwide During 2016, around 1.9 billion adults were reported overweight and out of these, around 650 million were obese. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated and summarized that obesity is a complex health issue, arising from single or combination of risk factors. These risk factors include modifiable and non-modifiable factors like genetic problem or environmental factors. Several studies established that, balanced diet and physical activity, when practiced in combination, positively impact in the weight reduction. Literature Review When existing literatures were reviewed to understand the obesity and its management better, it was observed in various studies that, despite of knowing the fact that balanced diet and good amount of physical activity helps in weight loss, xxii unhealthy behaviour that leads to obesity become routine and hard to change. In a research with obese individuals, this group was found, treated as one homogenous cohort, with little acknowledgement that beliefs, lifestyle, attitudes, or demographic characteristics of each obese individual varies within the cohort. Despite of the several risk factors identified, still there is no consensus across published literatures regarding the primary cause of obesity and