Abstract
The study aims to estimate the prevalence of underweight, overweight and identified the gender differentials among various strata of 50 years and above older populations in India. A national representative cross-sectional data of n=7273 older adults from WHO’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE wave1) India, was used. Underweight was defined as body mass index (BMI) <18.5 Kg/M2 and >25 Kg/M2 as overweight. A wealth index was created by cumulating the inverse proportion rate of assets acquired by individuals. The various stratifying axes comprised age, caste, and wealth. Bi-variable cross-tabulation with Chi-squared tests was used to test the differences in the distribution of nutritional status across various strata. 35.5% were underweight, 49.7% were normal weight and 14.7% were overweight. Most women were overweight (10.9% men~18.6% women, p<0.001), and fewer women were underweight (36.5% men~34.5% women, p<0.001) reflecting a gendered difference in nutritional status. Further, there was a dose-response relationship in nutritional status. The distribution across the caste groups was significantly graded, privileged being more overweight and less privileged being underweight. A similar pattern of hierarchical difference was seen for the wealth index.
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