Nutritional Status of Siddi Tribal Adults

Page: 175-179
Pooja Patil and Sunanda Itagi (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Community Science, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka)

The Siddis are the primitive tribal group of Karnataka which are lagging behind the demographic, social and economic indicators. Till date health and nutritional status among tribal populations have been investigated by number of researchers, but there is dearth of researches particularly concentrating on Siddi tribal community. Therefore, it is worth investigating the changing perspectives of nutritional status of Siddi tribal mothers. Study was conducted on 60 Siddi tribal and 60 non-tribal mothers (18-49 years age group) from 6 villages of Dharwad and Uttar Kannada districts of Karnataka state during2017. Structured interview schedule was used for collection of personal characteristics. Nutritional status was assessed by using anthropometries measurements. Results indicated that, 39 % of mothers (tribal & non-tribal) had ideal body weight and equal percentage of them exhibited overweight and obese (25.0%) and only 11 % were underweight. No significant difference and association were observed in the body mass index and waist hip ratio of tribal and non-tribal mothers. Body mass index was significantly associated with socio-economic status of rural mothers but not observed in Siddi tribal mothers indicating that prevalence of obesity increases with increases in socio-economic status. No significant relationship was found between body mass index and education of tribal and non tribal mothers.