A fitness assessment study among young fishermen of coastal areas of East Midnapore District of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Being the fourth most populated state of India, West Bengal has a population of about 82 million, of which a major percentage is represented by coastal fishing communities who are habituated to do a physically demanding occupation which may have a positive influence on their the physical parameters. Thus the present investigation was designed in order to assess the influence of fishery, such a physically demanding occupation on physical fitness and to compare whether fishermen have more cardiovascular fitness and anaerobic power than sedentary workers or not. The study was conducted in 15 randomly selected male fishermen of the Midnapore District (East), West Bengal, India (mean age of 22.5 yrs), and the 15 college students (mean age of 21.9 yrs) served as a control group. A significant difference (p<0.05) in blood pressure, PFI, energy expenditure, body fat% and anaerobic power was found in fishermen. But, in contrast, BSA, BMI, resting heart rate, VO , mean upper arm circumference, thigh and calf circumferences were found to be non-significant. 2max This study implies that fishermen have more physical fitness (cardiovascular fitness) and muscle mass, but a lower percentage of body fat than the sedentary population.

Evaluation of physical fitness and weight status among fisherwomen in relation to their occupational workload

“…Their body weights were found to be significantly lower than those of young females who served as controls. Young fisherwomen were also found to have significantly less PBF than the sedentary population ( Table 3 ), which may be attributable to their age; hence, they have a propensity for being lean rather than obese [ 24 ]. In Andhra Pradesh, more than 30.8% of women are reported to be underweight, a percentage that ranks Andhra Pradesh number 14 among the 28 states of India [ 25 ].…”

“…In the present investigation, both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were found to be lower in fisherwomen, among which only diastolic pressure showed significant differences in subjects. In contrast, the earlier studies of fishermen showed higher RHR and blood pressure values [ 5 , 24 ]; the decreased RHR and blood pressure values in women may be due to their cardiac autonomic modulation, as they have lower sympathetic activity compared with healthy men, which provides protection against arrhythmias and against the development of coronary heart diseases (CHD) [ 31 ].…”

Comparing the physiological, socio-economic and nutritional status among male and female undergraduate college students of metropolitan city of Kolkata

“…Among WC and WHR, WC is considered to be a better index for fat location than WHR for predicting lipid profile in adult women. [ 27 ] However, it is a well-known fact that BMI also has a negative correlation with WHR, as reflected in our study, which is very much important in case of women, because, this interrelation is a cue to the female physical attractiveness and the beauty of women. [ 28 29 30 ]…”

A Study on Nutritional Status among the Fishermen of Barrackpore I Block, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal

“…[7] In present study, 54.6% had BMI in normal range, 4.0% were underweight, 33.3% were overweight and 8.1% had obesity. According to Sengupta et al (2011) in West Bengal, mean BMI of fishermen was 19.2 Kg/m² which is in normal range. [9] In our present study, mean BMI of fishermen of Barrackpore-I block is 24.33Kg/m 2 which is in normal range.…”