Indian Teens Among The Shortest Globally With Low BMI: Study

New Delhi: India has been ranked 196th among 200 countries with respect to Body Mass Index (BMI) as per a global analysis of data spanning 34 years, The Times of India (TOI) reported.

Nineteen-year-old Indian boys and girls have a BMI of 20.1, whereas China that ranks 88th for its boys who have a BMI of 23 and 119th for its girls at 22.2. A normal BMI range is between 20 and 25.

As BMI is a function of height, Indian teens are also among the shortest in the world, according to the review published in the international medical journal ‘The Lancet’ led by Imperial College London on Thursday.

Boys in India ranked 180th with an average height of 5.46 feet while girls ranked 182th with an average height of 5.06 feet.

“Poor nutrition in school years may have created a 20 cm height gap across nations,” the review added.

“For instance, the study revealed that the average 19-year-old girl in Bangladesh and Guatemala (the nations with the world’s shortest girls) is the same height as an average 11-year-old girl in the Netherlands, the nation with the tallest boys and girls,” the authors of the study was quoted as saying by TOI.

Childhood obesity, a lack of quality and nutritional food can lead to stunted growth and health problems, experts added.