A study on nutritional status among young adult Bengaleefemales of Kolkata: effect of menarcheal age and per capitaincome

摘要

Nutritional status and its association with age at menarche and per capita incomewas studied in a sample of one hundred seventy five young adult post menarche Bengaleefemales of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Height and weight were measured following stan-dard technique and BMI was calculated. Information regarding age, age at menarche, percapita income etc. were collected through schedule. The results of the linear regression analy-sis revealed that both age at menarche and per capita income have significant (p < 0.05)impact on BMI. However, menarcheal age demonstrated negative impact 63 —0.21) on BMIand explained 4 % of the variance of BMI. Contrary to that, per capita income demonstratedpositive impact ((3 = 0.34) on BMI and explained 11% of the variance of BMI. However, theoverall prevalence of thinness, overweight and obese was 30.3 %, 9.1 % and 4.6 %, respec-tively. The results of the chi-square analysis revealed significant (p < 0.01) association ofnutritional status with age at menarche and per capita income.