• Parthibane Sivanantham, Jaya Prakash Sahoo, Subitha Lakshminarayanan, Zachariah Bobby, and Sitanshu Sekhar Kar.
• Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India.
• Fam Pract. 2023 Mar 28; 40 (2): 282289282-289.

BackgroundAbdominal obesities are better markers for predicting cardiovascular abnormalities than risk stratification based only on body mass index (BMI). We aimed to estimate the prevalence of abdominal adiposities using predictive equations for Asian Indian adults and to determine the prevalence of metabolically healthy subjects among those overweight/obese and with normal BMI.MethodsA community-based survey was conducted among those aged 18-69 years in the district of Puducherry between February 2019 and February 2020. We surveyed 2,560 individuals selected through multi-stage cluster random sampling from urban and rural areas (50 wards and 50 villages, respectively) of the district. Anthropometric measurements, such as height, weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure were recorded from each participant. Fasting blood sample was collected from each alternate participant to estimate metabolic risk factors.ResultsOver four-fifths (85.6%; 95% CI: 84.2-86.9) and two-thirds (69.7%; 95% CI: 67.9-71.6) of the population in the district had high levels of intra-abdominal adipose tissue (IAAT) and total abdominal fat (TAF), respectively. Both the risk factors were significantly higher among women and urban population. About 43% (95% CI: 41-44.9) of the population had high abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT) with a significantly higher prevalence among the urban population. Among those overweight/obese (n = 773), almost all 99.4% (95% CI: 98.7-99.9) were metabolically unhealthy. Among subjects with normal BMI (n = 314), only about 2.9% (95% CI: 1.3-4.8) were metabolically healthy.ConclusionWe highlight the substantially high prevalence of IAAT, TAF, and SCAT in the district of Puducherry. Almost all the study population was metabolically unhealthy irrespective of their BMI levels.© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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