Nutritional status of reproductive age group women: A community-based study

INTRODUCTION: Anemia continues to be a major public health problem worldwide, particularly among females of reproductive age in developing country settings. The prevalence of anemia in South Asia is among the highest in the world, mirroring overall high rates of malnutrition. OBJECTIVE: 1) To estimate the prevalence of anemia and undernutrition among reproductive age group females. 2) To study factors associated with anemia and undernutrition among reproductive age group females. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This was cross-sectional study, which was carried out from June 2011 to December 2012 at Nanded City in Maharashtra state among nonpregnant ever-married women of 15–49 years age with a sample size of 750 selected using probability proportional to size sampling technique. Percentage, Chi-square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and Student’s t test were used for analyzing the data. RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia among reproductive age group women was 554 (73.9%). 20.8% of women were undernourished and 4.1% were obese. There was a significant difference in the hemoglobin percentage of study subjects in relation to their age at marriage, weight, and body mass index (BMI). Mean BMI increases significantly as the age of women and duration of marriage increases. CONCLUSION: Nutritional status has a significant effect on the grade of anemia. Women of reproductive age groups are affected by anemia irrespective of age and parity.