Prevalence and Spatial Hotspots of Abdominal Obesity among Women in India: Evidences from National Family and Health Survey (2019-21)

Arabindo Tanti, PhD Research Scholar

Theoretical focus In the Indian context, Women are more sufferers from adverse impact of abdominal obesity (AO). The present study aims to identify district level spatial heterogeneity and geographical clusters of AO in different geographic region in India. Data The study included 702,218 women from 707 districts National Family and Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) database. Research methods To examine the spatial heterogeneity in abdominal obesity (AO) Moran's I test, LISA maps and spatial regression models such as Spatial error model (SEM) and Spatial Lag Model (SLM) were incorporated throughout the analysis. Expected findings Around 57.07% women of all age category (15-49 years) were had AO in India. Univariate LISA cluster map for AO showed that the majority of these hotspots were located in five clusters, including the western Himalaya region, a continuous belt from Darjeeling to Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana plain, Karnataka and Kerala border and lower ganga plain. On the other hand, districts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharastra, and Manipur were consisting of cold spots for AO. SEM reported that Muslim women, women who drink alcohol, and women with the highest wealth index were among the groups most likely to have high burden of AO in India.

Keywords: Mortality and Longevity, Health and Morbidity, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Data visualisation

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