ocio-economic, Dietary and Somatic status among Soliga Tribal Adults in Chamarajanagar District of Karnataka State

The tribal population is identified as the aboriginal inhabitants of our country. According census of India 2011, Schedule tribes comprise 8.6% of the population. Nutritional status as reflected by anthropometric measurements are true indicators of a population’s health status. The objective of the present study was to know the current socio-economic status, determine the nutritional status based on BMI and different components of adult soliga tribes. The Study was conducted in four taluks of Chamarajanagar District. A sample of 1000 soliga tribal adult in the age between 18-40 years were included for the study. Structured questionnaire used for data collection on socio economic status, dietary habit, habitual practice, illness, anthropometric indices and Composition of fat, water (%), lean weight worked out. Chi-square test employed to know the significant variation in the measured composition between genders. Higher numbers of respondents (42.8%) were in the age group of 34-40 years. 54.0% were males and married (85.9%). Majority of them were illiterate and working as coolie. (87.9%) of them belong to nuclear families and found to be a norm among Soligas and majority of them were also non-vegetarian. It was evident that 42.3% of the respondents were in the habits of smoking and consuming alcohol. Respiratory infection, diarrhea, Dysentery and Skin allergy were significantly more prevalent among males while fevers urinary tract infections were significantly high among females. The number of underweight subjects were more among females (40.9%) than males (37.6%). The normal BMI values were found among (51.5%) of males compared to only 47.4% of the females. Regarding waist hip ratio the findings reveals that Normal observed considerably more among males (50.6%) than females (31.5%) indicating the difference between males and females fond to be highly significant (χ2 =32.94, p<0.01).The response on fat (%) and fat (kg) between males and females found to be highly significant (χ2 = 45.50 and χ2 = 18.43).The response on water (%) and water (liters’) between males and females found to be significant (χ2 = 56.09 and χ2 = 33.33). The data reveals that the difference between males and females on lean (%), lean weight (kg) and total weight (kg) found to be highly significant (p<0.01).