An Assessment of the Nutritional Status and its Predictors amongst Women in a Rural Community of Dharwad Taluk, Karnataka, India

The connection between food insecurity and health is becoming more widely acknowledged, as it plays a major role in the onset and advancement of non-communicable illnesses. The family's overall well-being and health are directly impacted by the health status of the female. Rural women play a dominant role in the country’s economy and their nutritional status has direct bearing on the whole family. Hence the present study was conducted with the objective to assess nutritional status and to identify the predictors of poor nutrition among rural women of Dharwad taluk, Karnataka. The sample of the study included 500 rural women in the age group of 16-80 years. A self structured questionnaire, SES Agarwal 2005, Anthropometric measurements were used to assess BMI, Hb level, knowledge level and morbidity status. More than one third of the rural women were selected were in the age group of 40-80 years, were illiterates and involved in agriculture. Majority belong to social tribes and staying in nuclear families. Two third of the selected rural womenconsume non-vegetarian food. More than half of the families belonged to upper middle socio economic status. Majority of them had health related problems and were in mild to moderate anemia category. Low SES, low nutritional knowledge, non working status, morbidity condition, middle age group, anemia status and poor protein diet were found to be the risk factors of poor nutritional status among rural women. Low SES was found to be 2.6 times riskier; anemia condition was 4.68 times risk when compared to normal Hemoglobin level.