Anaemia and body mass index (BMI) of fisherwomen inhabiting in Karang island of Loktak Lake, Manipur (India)

Abstract

The paper examines the status of anaemia and body mass index (BMI) among fisherwomen of Karang Island Village, Manipur, India. Altogether 180 Meitei fisherwomen of age group 15 to 49 years were chosen for the study. Two anthropometric measurements viz., stature and body weight were taken on each subject. For estimation of haemoglobin level two standard methods namely, haemoglobin colour scale (HCS) and Sahli’s haemoglobinometer were employed. About 70% of the fisherwomen of Karang village are in normal BMI category, while 16 % of them are underweight, 11 % overweight and 3 % obese. The prevalence of anaemia is notably high among the fisherwomen of this village with a frequency of 68.89%. Women with normal BMI and non-anaemic constitute 24.44%. The mean values of haemoglobin concentration measured by HCS and Sahli’s method is 10.82gm/dl and 10.94gm/dl respectively. The two mean values were tested for t-test of significance and found statistically insignificant (t=0.852). The two adopted methods for haemoglobin estimation viz., HCS and Sahli’s method are found reliable. The correlation value of BMI and haemoglobin level shows negative in association (r = 0.060) and the value is found insignificant (t=0.566). The insignificance of this relationship means there is no correlation.

Keywords

• Haemoglobin level,body mass index (BMI),Sahli’s method,haemoglobin colour scale (HCS) method

References

1. Bagni UV, Luiz RR, da Veiga GV. (2012) Overweight is associated with low hemoglobin levels in adolescent girls. Obes Res Clin Pract doi:10.1016/j.orcp.2011.12.004