Abstract

NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF ADULT FEMALE TRIBES IN DIFFERENT VILLAGES OF JHARGRAM, WEST BENGAL

Rituparna De* and Jayanta Kumar Kundu

ABSTRACT

Nutritional status is one of the major thrust areas of human health research. The principle aim of this study is to understand the anthropometric characteristics of nutritional status in adult female of two tribal populations of Jhargram area. This is a preliminary study and it has been undertaken among the adult female Lodha and Santal resided in Jhargram, total enumeration was done as the sampling method. Data were collected using standard anthropometric techniques and pretested questionnaires. Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Hip ratio (WHR) has been taken into consideration for this study. Significance of the changes was done with the help of Student’s t-test. The present study showed 33.3% of Lodha population of this area remained under- nutrition whereas only 8.7% of Santal shows under-nourished. The changes between Lodha and Santal are statistically significant and the prevalence of overweight is found only 3% of Santal but not Lodha by descriptive statistics. Present study reveal that the prevalence of this high level undernourished condition and non-obesity in female Lodha populations shows a negative trend of nutritional parameters at the advanced ages may be due to of poor health care infrastructures, low income, poor education etc. other socio-economic conditions. The scenario of Lodha female is very critical, on the contrary, the Santal females as they present in better health condition. Santal is more advanced tribal population while the Lodha are primitive tribe and also less studied community.

Keywords: Tribal health, nutritional status, anthropometry, socio-economic profile.