Rural to urban migration linked to increased obesity, diabetes risk in India

Washington, Apr 28 (ANI): People who migrate from rural to urban areas are more likely to become obese compared to individuals who do not move, a new study in India has found.

What's more, this migration is a factor driving the diabetes epidemic in India, according to the study published this week in PLoS Medicine.

Like the rest of the world, the sub-continent too is experiencing a diabetes epidemic.

Diabetes has increased in urban areas of India from 5 percent to 15 percent between 1984 and 2004. As in other developing countries this is thought to result from increased consumption of saturated fats and sugar and reduced levels of physical activity.

The process of urbanization - migration from rural areas to towns and cities and the expansion of urban areas into the periphery - is linked to changes in diet and behaviour.

To examine how migration has impacted on obesity and diabetes in India, Shah Ebrahim and colleagues interviewed rural migrants working in urban factories.

To reach the conclusion, researchers recruited rural-urban migrants working in four factories in central, north and south India and the spouses of these workers if they were living in the same town. Each migrant worker or spouse asked a sibling still living in the rural area that they were originally from to join the study. Non-migrant factory workers and their siblings from urban areas were also recruited.

Each participant answered questions about their diet and physical activity and had their blood sugar and body mass index measured.

The results showed similar levels of obesity in urban and migrant men (41.9 percent and 37.8 percent respectively), in comparison with 19 percent of men in rural areas. Diabetes also stood at similar levels in urban and migrant men (13.5 percent in urban and 14.3 percent respectively), in comparison with 6.2 percent in rural men. These patterns of obesity and diabetes were similar in women.

The findings demonstrate that rural-urban migration in India is associated with rapid increases in obesity and diabetes and also indicated that changes in migrant behaviour - such as reduced physical activity - put them at similar risk to the urban population. (ANI)