Nutritional Status, General Illness and Health-Seeking Behaviour among Married Young Women in Rural India

Sudeshna Ghosh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Subrata Lahiri, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Adolescence is the period of rapid physical growth, sexual and psychological changes. Habits and behaviour picked up during adolescence including eating habits has lifelong impact. Adolescence is the last chance to correct the growth lag and malnutrition. Prevailing malnutrition, anaemia, and stunting which iare characteristics of many young women in India have adverse impact on MMR, IMR, morbidity and have intergenerational effects. Other than the nutritional status, the illness episodes are often experienced by young people especially in the rural India where personal hygiene is poor, availability of safe drinking water and toilet facility are lacking. The paper examines the level and determinants of nutritional status and body mass index among married young women and also the prevalence of general illness and health-seeking behavior among them. The paper uses primary data by administering quantitative and qualitative tools. Bi-variate and multivariate analysis were carried out using SPSS and STATA package.