Dietary Habits and Nutritional Status of Menopausal Women

Abstract

Menopause is one most challenging period for every woman. Nutrition plays a vital role in the quality of lifein postmenopausal women. Balanced diet and healthy life style has great bearing on their future health. Undercurrent demographic trends, menopausal and postmenopausal health has emerged as an important publichealth concern in India owing to improved economic conditions, rapid lifestyle changes and increasedlongevity. The present study was undertaken to study the nutritional status of menopausal women. The studywas taken up on 250 menopausal women in the age group of 40-70 years based on the willingness to participatein the study from Nagpur city. The respondents were selected by purposive random sampling method. Adetailed questionnaire was structured to collect necessary information from the respondents. The informationon nutrient intake was computed by using 24 hours dietary recall method. Height and Weight of therespondents were measured using standard techniques and BMI was calculated. The results of the studyrevealed that maximum percent of respondents (69.6%) belonged to the age group of 50-59 years. The meanage at menopause was seen to be 49 3.29 years and the mean age at menarche was found to be 13.41 1.21yrs. Majority of respondents were vegetarians. Observations from the data on nutrient intake reflect aninadequacy in protein and carbohydrate intake and an excess of fat intake. The calcium intake of respondentswas found to be grossly deficient in meeting only 50% of requirement. The mean phosphorous and magnesiumintakes was found to be within the recommended range of nutrients. It was interesting to note that more than50% of respondents were found in Obesity Grade I category and about 15.2% respondents were noted in theObesity Grade II category. Thus regular exercise, health monitoring, proper diet is essential for menopausalwomen to prevent future complications.