A shift towards the concept of thin body image is occurring among the urban girls, as an outcome of mass media exposure. A large section of the girls are involved in attaining thin body image which at times develops dissatisfaction over body weight. Body weight dissatisfaction gives rise to the development of body weight concern and disordered eating behavior. The present research aimed to find out the association of socio-cultural factors with disordered eating behavior among a group of urban girls. The study group included 400 girls aged between 14 and 21 years, residing in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, eastern state of India. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, body weight concern, media habits, and family-peer environments was collected using standard pretested questionnaires. A cross-culturally tested questionnaire developed by Srinivasan and colleagues in 1998, was used to measure disordered eating behavior. Bivariate analyses found significant associations between eating behavior and several socio-cultural factors. Multivariate analysis revealed that education level of fathers and birth order of the participants, body weight concern and peers’ influence were the significant predictors of disordered eating behavior of the study participants. Socio-cultural factors have significant associations with the disordered eating behavior of the study participants.

Present study aimed to compare the incidence of menopausal problems and concomitants between tribe and caste population. This cross section study was conducted in five villages of West Bengal, a state in the eastern part of India. This study was conducted between two different ethnic groups—one of the “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTG)” of India named as “Lodha” and the other was a Bengali speaking caste population. A total number of 313 participants were finally recruited for this study. Study participants were married, had at least one child, had no major gynaecological problems, and had stopped menstrual bleeding spontaneously for at least 1 year. Additionally, data on sociodemographic status and menstrual and reproductive history were collected using a pretested questionnaire/schedule. Bivariate analyses (chi square test) revealed that significantly more number of caste participants suffered from urinary problems than their tribe counterpart. The reverse trend has been noticed for the frequency of vaginal problems. Multivariate analyses (binary logistic regression) show that sociodemographic variables and menstrual and reproductive history of the present study participants seem to be the concomitants of menopausal symptoms. Tribe and caste study population significantly differed with respect to the estrogen deficient menopausal problems and the concomitants to these problems.

Growing consciousness about ideal body image leads to dietary modifications and consequent eating disorders among girls in developing countries like India. The present study aims to (i) assess the prevalence of body weight consciousness and related behaviours among a group of adolescent girls; (ii) assess the sociodemographic correlates of weight related behaviours; and (iii) compare weight related behaviours of the girls of two religious groups residing in Howrah. The study is the outcome of a crosssectional school based survey involving 280 (159 Hindu and 121 Muslim) girls from standards 8 to 11. Significant differences exist between two religious groups with respect to their family size, socioeconomic profile, and media exposures (in terms of watching television). Consciousness about body weight among girls shows significant difference with respect to religion, family size ( 2 = 64.77), father's occupation ( 2 = 60.28), level of education of both the parents, and media exposure ( < 0.05). Consciousness about body weight drives them to adopt several behavioural measures like calorie restriction, food avoidance, and dieting. Sociodemographic correlates of all these behaviours have been analyzed. The study documents that concern over body image and weight loss is quite important among these urban girls.