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

Abstract

Background: Fishery is an important sector in most of the developed and developing countries of the world from the stand point of income and employment generation. Usually Indian fishermen are used to do moderate work in their profession and they need a proper nutritional support. Objectives: To find out the overall nutritional status and socio-economic condition of fishermen of Barrackpore I Block, North 24 Parganas. To find out the association, if any, between their nutritional status and some socio-economic variables and also with addiction and health hazard. Methods: An observational type of cross sectional study was conducted on 99 fishermen of Barrackpore I block, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal from April to September, 2018. Results: 4.0% of study population were underweight, 33.3% were overweight and 8.1% were found to be obese. 19.2% had increased and 3.0% had substantially increased waist circumference. 63.6% had increased waist hip ratio among the study population. 53.1% of fishermen had very high body fat percentage in the age group of 20 to 39 years whereas 56.0% of fishermen had very high body fat percentage in the age group of 40 to 59 year age group. Various clinical signs were observed like anaemia (23.2%), oedema (8.1%), dental caries (11.1%), pale tongue (19.2%) etc among fishermen also. Conclusions: Nutritional status of the population studied was not satisfactory. Low socio-economic condition was common picture in the population. Also, addiction to alcohol and tobacco had a great impact on their health status.