Obesity and dyslipidemia among Bhil tribal population: A cross-sectional study from India

Rising obesity epidemic and dyslipidemia majorly contribute to cardiovascular disease burden. Emerging evidence has reported an increasing trend of metabolic disorders among rural tribal populations in developing countries. Hence, the present study attempts to estimate the prevalence of obesity and dyslipidemia and explore their association among Bhil tribal population from India. This was a cross-sectional study consisting of 277 adults recruited through household survey. Data on socio-demographic and lifestyle variables were collected and obesity was determined using anthropometric measurements. Biochemical assay was done using fasting blood samples. Logistic regression was employed to identify obesity variables associated with dyslipidemia. Almost 40% of the population had generalized obesity (high BMI) while abdominal obesity was found to be relatively higher in terms of WHR (76.9%) followed by WHtR (59.2%) and WC (44.8%). Dyslipidemia in form of low HDL-C was found to be highest (52.3%) followed by high TG (40.8%), TC (7.9%), and LDL-C (6.5%). Sex-wise distribution of obesity and dyslipidemia variables revealed women were significantly more obese and dyslipidemic (low HDL-C) as compared to men. Logistic regression analysis after controlling for confounders revealed a significant association of abdominal obesity with all abnormal lipids except for high TG. The observed high prevalence of obesity and dyslipidemia, particularly low HDL-C and hypertriglyceridemia, warrants a public health concern. This study emphasizes the need for population-specific disease documentation to highlight underlying mechanisms of risk factors and to set forth a targeted approach to disease treatment and management.