Double burden of malnutrition in India: decadal changes among adult men and women

The recent COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore a high fatality rate amongst those with comorbidities of diabetes and hypertension that is often associated with obesity, while it also exposes the vulnerabilities among the less nourished population due to the infection and economic lockdown. An increasing number of developing countries like India have both undernourished people and overnourished individuals posing a huge public health challenge. In these contexts, the study analyses the decadal changes in double burden of malnutrition among adult men and women in India based on NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 data. Undernutrition is assessed by the thinness and overnutrition by overweight and obesity using Asian cut-off values for BMI.