Author : Chandra Samanta 1
Date of Publication :29th November 2017
Abstract: healthy dietary habit is indispensable for better nutritional status for the “youth span†(15-24 years of age group) of life due to innumerable physical changes. Physical changes along with adoption of poor dietary habits can make youth the nutritionally vulnerable group. And they become not only nutritionally vulnerable but also hard to reach population when we consider the tribal youth. Traditional foods are mainly regarded as the primary source of the regular diet of the tribal population irrespective of age. However, very less information is available regarding the dietary habit and nutritional status of the tribal youth. With an objective to assess the dietary habits in terms of dietary diversity and nutritional status of tribal youth, this crosssectional study was conducted in Gumla district of Jharkhand, India. A total of 220 youths aged 15-24 years were selected to participate in the study. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics, Dietary diversity, the primary source of consumed food and anthropometry. Statistical analysis has been performed using SPSS software (version 22). Starchy staples namely cereals consumption was universal and 97.7% youth consumed white tubers. In case of micronutrient-rich vegetable groups, only 15.5%, 67.3 % and 90.5% of youth consumed vitamin A rich, green leafy and other vegetables respectively. Although 91.8% of the study sample were non-vegetarian, considering the bodybuilding foods only 42.7% of youth consumed flesh foods and 18.6% consumed milk and milk products. This type of dietary consumption resulted in 20.5 % of the studied population as underweight. It is only 79.5 % youth of the study sample were found to have normal body mass index (≥18.5kg/m2). In general, dietary diversity and nutritional status of the tribal youth in the present study is not at the satisfactory level. The primary source of their consumed food is local foods. Tribal people preserve the knowledge of traditional food resources that exist within their area of residence and they mostly procure foods by harvesting or collecting through gathering, hunting procedure based on their traditional knowledge.
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