Assessment of Awareness and Nutritional Status of Rural Community: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: COVID-19 Pandemic had led to an unprecedented emergency which led to many transformations in all aspects of life including dietary practices. A good and balanced die played a crucial role in prevention of disease and faster recovery. For a good dietary practice, knowledge and awareness is needed. Even the SDG 2 deals with food, nutrition and curbing with hunger. The purpose of this study was to explore the awareness of good dietary habits and the nutritional content of everyday meals among rural communities as well as to assess the nutritional status and physical activity.

Methods: This was a observational cross-sectional study conducted amongst the community of from two rural zones in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra in April to June 2022. Convenience sampling with the sample size as 40 households residing in the community was used. The head of the family of each household were surveyed using a pre-designed and pre-tested structured questionnaire. The tool used to explore the daily food consumption, assessment of nutritional status and physical activities of the participants. The study also determined at people's awareness of what a balanced diet is and the concept/effects of malnutrition in addition to anthropometric measurements. Data was entered in spreadsheet and analysis was done with the Microsoft excel using descriptive statistics.

Results: Of those surveyed, regarding nutritional awareness, it was found that 92% and 82% of the subjects have not even heard of the term "Balanced diet" and “Malnutrition” respectively. The BMI ranges of the study subjects, showed that majority (22, 55%) of the study participants had normal BMI, followed by (13, 32.5%) as underweight i.e. BMI below 18.5 and (5; 12.5%) as pre-obese category, i.e. BMI above 25. It was observed that the individuals used to undertake around 8 hrs of physical activity per day on an average. Regarding the diet pattern, it was noted that rural communities still follow follows traditional wisdom of a balanced diet from ancestral roots. Due to poverty and lack of resources, they tend to stick to whatever is affordable and locally available.

Conclusion: Considering the significant unawareness regarding nutrition and balanced diet as observed, we conclude that the Government’ plans and efforts around food security will be more successful if raising public awareness about the significance of nutrition and food is the first step in this regard. The right to food and the right to health can only reach the rural areas when the awareness index in these areas is enhanced by utilizing all available tools and approaches.