Nutritional transition: a public health challenge in developing countries

摘要

Developing countries are undergoing various types of transitions. The epidemiological transition makes them face a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Similarly, demographic and socioeco-nomic transitions are also occurring in these countries. Earlier developing countries had a high prevalence of undernu-trition, but this era of transition has also brought a double burden of undernutri-tion and overnutrition in these countries. Shukla el al in their descriptive study of body mass index (BMI) in western India in this issue of the journal have demonstrated this burden. BMI, also known as Quetelet's index, relates height to weight and is measured by the formula―weight (kg)/height (m)~2. It has been recommended to use this index as it is difficult to measure fat mass under field conditions. For different grades of overweight among adults, an expert committee of the World Health Oranisation has recommended three cut off points of 25, 30, and 40.