Work environment and lifestyle behaviours contribute to the development of obesity. The increased prevalence of obesity is concerning public health problems in India and are the major risk factors for number of diseases. Mining population being considered as an active workforce, the present study was carried out to determine the distribution of obesity among different category of mine workers of western India. Anthropometric measurements such as height, weight and waist circumference of 527 mineral mine workers age ranging from 18 to 60 years were investigated. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated as kg/m2 and categorised as per World Health Organization (WHO) 1998 criteria. Workers were classified into four groups according to International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-88). 96.2% of the mine workers were above 40 years of age group. Waist circumference was used for determination of abdominal obesity which was present among 61.8%. Overall it was observed that 69.8% of mine workers are having one or either i.e., abdominal, generalized or combined form of obesity. Further analysis showed that workers with abdominal only, generalized only and combined obesity were 18.9%, 8.3% and 42.8% respectively. Abdominal obesity and generalized obesity was more prevalent among professional group while combined obesity was more prevalent in Machine operators and Trade workers with elementary group being least affected.This study showedhigh prevalence of obesity among all categories of mine workers and recommended the need of healthy lifestyle intervention to prevent major risk factors for many diseases.
