Nutritional Status and Reproductive Health of Young Rural Adult Women in Krishnagiri District

Abstract :

Child marriage is still wide spread in India. Early marriage exploits the physical and mental well being of women. A cross sectional study was conducted in Bargur Taluk of Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu to compare the nutritional status and reproductive health of 18 to 25 years old women who were married before 18 years and the women of same age group who were married after 18 years. Totally 150 married women were selected by purposive sampling method to study the prevalence of early marriage and their socio economic status in the selected area. Nutritional status and reproductive health was assessed in a sub sample of 100. Among the 150 women, 37.33 per cent were married before 18 years and they were classified as Group-I. Others (62.67%) were classified as Group-II. In Group-I, majority (44.6%) had completed secondary education and 51.78 per cent belonged to lower income group. In Group-II, 48.92 per cent had completed higher secondary education or more and 50 per cent belonged to economically weaker section. Though there was no difference in the mean height, there was a significant difference in the mean weight between the groups. The BMI was normal in 48.5 per cent of women in group-I and 44.64 per cent of the women in group-II. Prevalence of malnutrition was noted more in group-I (22.86%) than in group-II (16.92%). The hemoglobin level was also found to be significantly lower in group-I (9.71gm/dl) than group-II (10.2gm/dl). The average age at menarche was same in both the groups. Age at marriage of women influenced the age at birth of the first and the last child. Occurrence of abortion and still birth was reported higher among the women in group-I (20% and 5.71% respectively) than the women in group-II (12.3% and 3% respectively). High RHI score was obtained by 72.31 per cent of women in group-II whereas only 54.29 per cent of women in group-I could get this. It can be concluded that early age at marriage negatively influences educational attainment, nutritional status and reproductive health of women.

Author Name : S. Gayathri Devi & Dr. S.Ponne

Keywords: Age at marriage, reproductive health of women, nutritional status of women.