Nutritional Status of urban and rural female farm labours

Abstract

The present study was carried out to assess the Nutritional Status of Urban and Rural Female newlineFarm Labours of Parbhani District. Purposively 500 adult women of 21 to 30 years and 31 to 40 newlineyears from urban slum (250) and rural (250) area were covered for study. Parameters used for the newlinestudy were survey and for assessment of nutritional status a combination of anthropometry, newlineassessment of dietary intake, clinical examination and haemoglobin assessment. A survey was newlinecarried out to find general background. A combination of anthropometry, food consumption newlinepattern and nutrient intake were used for assessing the nutritional status of selected female farm newlinelabours. Using standard procedures of anthropometry measurements of height (cm), weight (kg), newlinemid-upper arm circumference, waist hip ratio (WHR) of the selected 500 female farm labours newlinewere recorded and compared with NCHS reference values. The body mass index (BMI) was newlinecalculated by using ICMR Standard formula.WHR is the ratio of circumference of the waist to newlinethat of the hip. The ratio was determined by dividing waist measurement by hip measurement. newlineFood and nutrient intake of all 500 female farm labours was assessed by using 24 hours recall newlinemethod for three consecutive days. To determine the type and approximate quantity of food stuff newlineconsumed by each subject used weighment method. All 500 female farm labours included in the newlinepresent study were assessed for the presence of different health problems and examined for newlinehaemoglobin content by cyanomethemoglobin method to judge the extent of prevalence of newlineanaemia. The data was analyzed statistically to find out the significant difference between newlinegroups. Results of the study revealed that majority of female farm labours were from nuclear newlinefamilies in urban slum (76.8%) and in rural area (67.2%), while 84.2 per cent of families were newlinehaving 4 to 6 members. Near about 79 per cent female farm labours from rural areas were newlinevegetarian and 69.2 per cent were non-vegetarian from urban slum. More than 55 per cent newlinesubjects from both gr