Abstracto

Gender based comparison of nutritional status across rural-urban interface of south indian megacity bangalore

K Geetha*, Vijayalakshmi D ,Shilpa Yatnatti, Christoph Dittrich

Diet, composition of nutrients in the body and normal metabolic integrity is the requirement of human health and represented by nutritional status. The socially constructed gender roles of men and women interact with their biological roles to affect the nutrition status. Urbanization and global change has an impact on the nutritional status of individuals. Present study focused on assessment and comparison of nutritional status of men and women across rural-urban interface of Bangalore. A total of 300 households were selected from 30 localities based on purposive random sampling which are classified as rural, transition and urban areas. Anthropometric measurements were taken and indices were calculated. Results revealed that, underweight was more among women (13.56%) compared to men (8.88%). Obesity incidence was more in urban in case of women (15.34%), among men it was in rural (3.55%). Urban women had more percentage for increased waist hip ratio (58.7%) compared to men. However, incidence of non- communicable diseasesweremore among men compared to women. In conclusion, even though malnutrition was more prevalent among women, men had more incidence of non-communicable diseases. Thisindicates essentiality to study the other lifestyle related factors other than anthropometry, which are significant contributors to health status of the individual across rural-urban interface of Bangalore.