Abstract
The present cross-sectional study was conducted among two male tribal groups Munda (n=106) and Oraon (n=104) aged 18–73 years of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal. Objective was to evaluate the health status based on body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (PBF). Measurements of weight, height, circumferences, and skinfolds were recorded. Results revealed that mean age of Mundas (36.2±13.3) and Oraons (35.1±15.3) in years were similar. Significant (P<0.05) ethnic differences in mean chest circumference and anterior thigh skinfold were observed. Both Munda (50.0%) and Oraon (46.2%) males suffered from very high degree of chronic energy deficiency (CED) based on BMI. Similarly, for percent body fat (PBF), Mundas (29.3%) and Oraons (35.4%) had unhealthy (too low) PBF (i.e., ≤5%) levels. Significantly negative correlations were observed between age and BMI and positive correlations between age, waist-hip ratio (WHR), and conicity index (CI) (only Mundas) among Mundas and Oraons. In Linear regression, age had a significant impact on all derived central and overall adiposity measures. Prospective studies are required to determine the associations between health status and PBF as well as nutrition status and BMI in different indigenous ethnic groups of India and elsewhere.
Highlights
The poor nutritional condition of young children in India has received much attention recently, but Indian adults are experiencing a variety of nutritional problems [1]
In view of the above background, the present study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the body composition of Munda and Oraon tribal male adults centering on the prevalence of health and nutritional status of both these communities using body mass index (BMI) (k/m2) and percent body fat (PBF) (%)
The contribution we have made in this paper is to evaluate the health and nutritional status patterns, using a well-tested methods among two different adult tribal male groups using BMI and PBF
Summary
The poor nutritional condition of young children in India has received much attention recently, but Indian adults are experiencing a variety of nutritional problems [1]. The developing world faces the growing problem of obesity. About one-third of the world’s population today is overweight, and almost one in ten is obese [2]. Fat is one of the basic components that make up the structure of our body. The other components include muscle, water, bone, and your organs— the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach, pancreas, intestines, and so forth. Body fat can be divided into two categories: essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat is approximately 3% of body weight. Men and women have similar amounts of storage fat [3]
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