Urban India increasingly getting slouchy

The outcome of a comprehensive national survey in 2017-18 on the risk of Indians picking up lifestyle diseases conveyed a pretty grim picture. The takeaways :

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

51.7% -Urban adults physically inactive (30.9% in rural India)

52.4%- Physically inactive urban women (36.1% in rural areas)

FRUITS-VEGETABLES INTAKE

5 SERVINGS - WHO’s recommendation

2 SERVINGS PER DAY - Average consumption of fruits and/or vegetables

SALT CONSUMPTION

8.9 gm/day - Salt consumed by men

7.1 gm/day - Average salt intake by women Men often took extra salt before having food

TOBACCO USAGE

28% - Adults used one or other form of tobacco daily

31.7% of them were in rural areas, 20.5% in urban India

21.1 years mean age of initiation of tobacco

ALCOHOL USAGE

15.9% of respondents consumed alcohol

81.1% of adults were lifetime abstainers of alcohol (97.3% women and 66.1% men)

22.2 mean age of initiation of alcohol use

40.2% of adults 18–69 year age group had a clustering of three or more risk factors like daily tobacco use, inadequate fruits and/or vegetable intake, insufficient physical activity etc