Dietary Pattern and Stress Scale of the Working Women ( to Years) in Coimbatore

Abstract: A woman's health in her total well-being is not determined solely by her biological factors and reproduction, but also by effects of work load, nutrition, stress, war and migration, among others. Most of the time women takes care of her family and ignores own health , so awareness generation is needed to promote the health of the women .The study was focused to know the dietary pattern and stress level among 100 randomly selected working women of age group 25 to 45 years in Coimbatore. The interview schedule was framed to collect the data about socio-demographic profile, anthropometric status, dietary pattern and stress level. About 6% of the subjects were underweight, 38% were with normal BMI, 28% overweight and 28% were obese. Intake of energy, protein, fibre, iron and calcium were found to be deficit whereas fat intake was found to be excess among the selected working subjects. The perceived stress Scale was used to analyze stress and found that 72% of the subjects - moderate stress, 28% of the subjects - high stress and none of the subjects have very low stress. Nutrition education was provided to all the selected working women by E-Pamphlet through mail which highlighted the importance of healthy food choices and physical activity. It was concluded that the nutritional status of the working women is comparatively low and the stress level is moderate to high and there is no relationship between nutrient intake and stress level.

Keywords: Anthropometry, dietary pattern, stress, nutrition education