Nutritional Status of Adult Tribal Ho Women of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India: A Comparative Study

Introduction: The health and nutritional status of tribal women are important factors that not only contribute to maintaining a healthy family and healthy children but also influence economic growth globally. Tribal women health is affected by various important factors such as poverty, early marriage, domestic violence, lack of nutrition, education, health care facilities, and insufficient knowledge or awareness. The present result aims to understand the health and nutritional status of tribal women of two blocks of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in twelve villages (Duan, Baguan, Chak Sujal, Bankakul, Amra Gerya, Kismat Duan Roypukur, Srirampur, Sridharpur, Sirni, Keshrambha, Sahania and Nandakuria) under Debra and Dantan-II blocks of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. Results: From the present study we found that mean values of anthropometric variables like WT, MUAC, BSF, TSF, SISF and SSSF were higher among the women in Debra block than those in Dantan-II and these values are statistically significant (p<0.001). The derived measurements of BMI, FM, FFM, FMI, and FFMI were higher among Debra block women than Dantan-II and and all these values are statistically significant (p<0.001; in the case of FFM, the value is p<0.01). Overall, undernutrition based on BMI of the study population was 31.2%. Among them, women of Dantan-II block were more undernourished (46.3%) than Debra block (18.5%) (ᵪ2 =33.85, df=2, p<0.001). Similar to BMI, the nutritional status of the study population based on MUAC showed that overall undernutrion was 55.4%, among them in Dantan-II block women were more undernourished (65.0%) than Debra women (47.3%) (ᵪ2 =8.54, df=1, p<0.01). Women in the Debra block were more obese (30.31%) than Dantan-II (10.6%) (ᵪ2= 15.30, df=1, p<0.001). Conclusions: From various studies, we found that the nutritional status of Scheduled Tribe women varies widely depending on factors such as rural housing, illiteracy and poor economic status. In the present study we found that the prevalence of undernutrition was higher among the Dantan-II block women than the Debra block. Almost one third of the study participants were undernourished, which is why a well-planned and coordinated effort is needed to address the scenario of malnutrition among the tribal population.