A Study to Assess the Nutritional Status of Housewives of the Below Poverty Line Families Living in a Slum in the Kidderpore Area of Kolkata, India

Abstract

Housewives in the below poverty line (BPL) families are at a high risk of suffering from malnutrition, because of poverty, and the fact that they often give priority to the nutritional needs of other family members, neglecting their own. This study has attempted to assess the nutritional status of housewives of the BPL families living in a slum in the Kidderpore area of Kolkata (India), by employing binomial tests at 5% level of significance, and using three indicators viz., body mass index or BMI, presence of angular stomatitis, and presence of pallor, and one predisposing factor viz., frequency of consumption of green leafy vegetables. Chi-square tests at 5% level of significance have been utilized to check the associations between the frequency of consumption of green leafy vegetables and the occurrence of pallor, and between the physiological condition and the presence of pallor, among the housewives. The results show that a significant number of housewives of the concerned slum are neither suffering from, nor predisposed to, malnutrition, so far as the aforesaid indicators and predisposing factor are concerned, and that there is a significant association between the frequency of consumption of green leafy vegetables and the occurrence of pallor, whereby the likelihood of the latter decreases as the former increases. The outcomes also show that there is a significant relationship between the physiological condition and the presence of pallor, whereby the pregnant/lactating housewives (these women have higher nutritional needs) are more susceptible to pallor than the non-pregnant and the non-lactating ones.