Differentials in Basal Metabolic Rate, Body Mass Index and Diabetes in selected states of India

Health and disease are critical concepts in bioethics with far-reaching social and political implications. In view of the aforesaid background it is proposed to study the differentials in Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Body Mass Index (BMI) and Diabetes and to study the effect of socio-economic and demographic indicators on BMR, BMI and Diabetes in selected states of India. The present study relies on National Family Health Survey-III conducted in 2005-06 for understanding the gender differentials in BMR, BMI and Diabetes (main dependent variables). The Independent variables will be various socio-demographic indicators like age, sex, highest educational level, place of residence, religion, caste/tribe, wealth index, occupation, alcohol and tobacco use. BMR, BMI and Diabetes are correlated with each other and differ by gender with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The means BMR is higher in males besides higher prevalence of diabetes than females. Females have highest percentage of overweight and underweight. Logistic regression result showed high correlation between those indicators with diabetes.