As per the estimates of National Family Health Survey, Orissa lies far behind the national average in terms of many important aspects of nutrition. The problem is definitely more acute in case of the women staying in rural areas. This paper tries to find out the variation in food consumption and nutritional status of women in the state in rural and urban areas against different background variables. It also attempts to capture the difference between standard and actual level of food intake among different groups of women. The current study is based on NFHS-II data, which comprised of 4425 ever married women in the age group 15-49. As expected, a profound variation in nutritional status was observed between the rural and urban women in Orissa. 33 percent of urban women and 48.6 percent of rural women were found to be in the low BMI group. As far as food consumption was concerned, urban women enjoyed a better position in all the food items. Nutritional status was found to be positively related with education of respondent, education of husband, household standard of living, occupation of husband. However, the variation in nutritional status was not found to be very high between different categories of any explanatory or background variable in rural areas. Most of the rural women when categorized were found to be taking less food than their requirement. All these clearly suggest a condition of emergency for improving the nutritional status of women in Orissa, especially in the rural areas.

This study is an attempt to explore the perception of city dwellers on different aspects of urban environment in the city of Bhubaneswar in India, and analyze its socioeconomic correlates. The survey carried out for the purpose and the composite indices computed afterwards indicated that migrants were less satisfied with the urban environment and services, in comparison to the natives. It was clearly evident that there existed a wide disparity in service provision to slum and non-slum households. As regard the road transport service, the least satisfied were the affluent residents of the good residential area Interestingly, the respondents did not think lack of public transportation facility as a major problem, which could be attributed to the increasing tendency of using personal vehicles by them. It was also marked that with increasing age of the respondents, level of satisfaction with urban environment came down. Older people, who had been exposed to better environment earlier, were relatively unhappy with its current state.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome is the commonest endocrinopathy resulting in anovulatory infertile young women. Clomifene citrate (clomiphene) is a long-standing standard drug for ovulation induction, and is still considered as first line option in PCOS women. However, clomiphene has certain disadvantage letrozole an aromatase inhibitor acts by reducing estrogen production and has no adverse effects on endometrium and cervical mucous. Indian PCOS women have high prevalence of insulin resistance and thus are likely to have high clomiphene resistance. So letrozole could prove to be a good alternative for ovulation induction in such women.Methods: This was a prospective randomized, parallel, comparative clinical trial of two ovulation induction drugs letrozole 5 mg versus clomiphene citrate 100 mg as first-line ovulation induction drug in infertile polycystic ovarian syndrome women. The target population of the study was one hundred infertile women with PCO (taking at least 2 Rotterdam’s parameters). 50 women were allocated to clomifene citrate and 50 were allocated to Letrozole for ovulation induction. Parameters like age, duration of infertility, B MI, ovulation rate, number of follicles, pregnancy rate, endometrial thickness were noted and analyzed.Results: In letrozole group, the ovulation rate, mono-follicular development, mean endometrial thickness and pregnancy rate was better in comparison to clomifene citrate group.Conclusions: The result of this study suggests that letrozole may replace clomiphene as the first line drug for ovulation induction in infertile PCOS women.

In majority of the households, decision on items to cook is done predominantly by housewives and thus, their knowledge about healthy food is a key factor in deciding food consumption pattern and hence, overall family health. The current study, based on data collected through a semi-structured interview schedule from 84 currently married women of the district of Balasore in India, selected through a multi-stage sampling process, aimed at analyzing the level of and factors associated with women's awareness about healthy diet and eating practices. It was observed that affluent, educated and urban respondents were more aware of healthy eating habits, while the large chunk of economically and educationally disadvantaged samples were backward in their awareness level and more seriously; such respondents were highly complacent about the healthiness of their diet. All it asks for is a need and behavior based nutrition education intervention especially in rural areas of the district.

The quality and quantity of health infrastructure are essential elements for the overall human development of a nation. But as per the report of WHO & World Bank (2017), at least half of the world’s population cannot obtain essential health services. Keeping in mind the above-mentioned notation, the present study focuses on the spatio-temporal disparities in healthcare infrastructure among fifty-four blocks under the undivided Medinipur district, by computing Health Infrastructure Index (HII) on the basis of thirteen selected indicators using the Deprivation Index Method, for two temporal scales i.e. for the year 2001 and 2011. The study found that there exists inter-block disparity within the region regarding the availability and accessibility of basic healthcare infrastructure with respect to the population pressure of that region. The study argued for policy implementation by the local government for improving the underdeveloped pockets within the study area.