Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Session: How Does Food Environment Shape Our Food Choices and Nutritional Outcomes? (Oral 10)

(OR10-05-24) Impact of Adverse Food Environments on Overweight, Obesity and HbA1C Levels in India- Findings From a Large Population Cohort

Sunday, June 30, 2024

10:48 AM – 11:00 AM CT

Location: W375D

Presenting Author(s)

Sailesh Mohan, MD.MPH,PhD

Professor
Public Health Foundation of India and Centre for Chronic Disease Control
Gurgaon, Haryana, India

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

AR

Anjali Rao

Centre for Chronic Disease Control, India
HP

Himanshi Pandey

Centre for Chronic Disease Control
MD

Manisha Dubey

Centre for Chronic Disease Control
NS

Nikhil Srinivasapura Venkateshmurthy

Public Health Foundation of India and Centre for Chronic Disease Control
PJ

Prashant Jarhyan

Public Health Foundation of India and Centre for Chronic Disease Control
RK

Rajesh Khatkar

Public Health Foundation of India
DP

Dorairaj Prabhakaran, MD, DM, MSc

Public Health Foundation of India and Centre for Chronic Disease Control
Delhi, Delhi, India

Objectives: Adverse food environments profoundly impact and increases the risk of diet related Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which are increasing rapidly in developing countries like India. However, studies on food environments using advanced technologies like geo-mapping in India are lacking. We studied the food environment in a large community-based cohort in North and South India.

Methods: Data were collected from 5565 geo-coded households, and 12,243 individuals from North (Sonipat) and South (Vizag), India on socio-demographic characteristics, food environment (geolocation), body size, HbA1C. The association of unhealthy food density ( < 5 Vs >15 number of unhealthy food outlets/1000 households) and proximity to unhealthy food outlets ( < 500m Vs ≥ 3km) with overweight (≥25.0 to < 30.0 kg/m²), obesity (≥30.0 kg/m²), and high glucose levels (HbA1c >6.5%) were investigated using multivariable regression analysis.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 52.4±11.7 years, half were women and half resided in rural areas. More than 1/4^th of the participants were overweight (27%) and 11% were obese. Unhealthy food density as well as proximity was higher in urban (Sonipat: 18.2±17.5, Vizag: 17.3±14.5) than rural areas (Sonipat: 4.2±5.3, Vizag: 13.2±12.3) (p < 0.05).

Participants reporting higher density of unhealthy food outlets [adjusted odds ratio (AOR)1.42 (95% CI: 1.16,1.73)] and closer proximity to unhealthy food outlets [1.21 (1.01, 1.45)] had higher likelihood of having BMI in overweight or obese category. Notably, those having closer proximity to unhealthy food outlets had higher likelihood of having high glucose levels [AOR 1.29 (1.07, 1.56)].

Conclusions: Adverse food environments are associated with overweight and obesity as well as high HbA1C levels in India. Given the increasing burden of NCDs, particularly diabetes, population-based policies to make food environments healthier to enable healthier dietary choices are warranted.

Funding Sources: Wellcome Trust, UK