RESUMO
Objectives: In India, poverty, illiteracy, and difficult terrains make the tea garden elderly population more vulnerable to malnutrition. The food environment shows the interface through which consumers interact with their food system. Hence, the present study was done to assess the nutrition status and identify the sociodemographic and food environmental factors affecting the nutritional status of the elderly population residing in tea gardens of Naxalbari block, Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross‑sectional study was conducted in all tea gardens of Naxalbari block, Darjeeling, from March 2022 to September 2022, among older people aged 60 years and above selected by simple random sampling. Using the predesigned, pretested questionnaire, the Mini Nutritional Assessment tool for nutritional assessment and the elderly population’s perceived food environment was determined based on five points Likert’s scale. Perceived food environment clusters were identified using a two‑stage cluster analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to determine predictors of nutritional status. Results: Out of the 294 study participants, the majority of 190 (64.6%) of the older people were at the risk of malnutrition, 18 (6.1%) malnourished, and 86 (29.3%) had normal nutritional status. Binary logistics regression showed older people who were illiterate (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 14.864; 95% confidence interval [CI]; 4.311–51.457) and not working (AOR 3.775; 95% CI; 1.753–8.128) had significantly higher odds of being undernourished. Older people who perceived a favorable food environment (AOR 0.408; 95% CI; 0.214–0.775) had significantly lesser odds of being undernourished. Conclusion: Tea garden older population is at higher risk of malnutrition. Illiteracy, working status, and perceived favorable food environment plays important role in altering the nutritional status of the elderly. Prior interventions such as awareness regarding food nutrition and developing elderly friendly food environment are needed.
RESUMO
Introduction: Cement factory workers are at a high risk of exposure to crystalline silica-laden cement dusts and at a higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), like chronic bronchitis, emphysema and restrictive lung disease like silicosis. This study was done to measure the extent of occupational ventilatory defect among workers employed inside cement factories. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among cement factory workers using questionnaire on respiratory symptoms 1986 and spirometry was done after seeking permission from the concerned authority and Institutional Ethics Committee. Logistic regression analysis was done to test for statistical significance. Results: Ventilatory defect was present among one fourth of the factory workers. Obstructive type of lung disease was much higher (94.6%) than restrictive lung disease (5.4%). Almost half of the study subjects had presented with different types of respiratory symptoms. Breathlessness on exertion was commonest symptom, followed by cough day and night. Ventilatory defects were noted to be much higher (86.5%) among the workers working in the cement factories for more than 10 years and increasing trend was observed with increment in their age and years of working at the factory. Ventilatory defect were significantly high among smokers (29.5%), subjects who started smoking in early age (35.9%) and there is increasing trend of defects with a greater number of cigarettes intake. Conclusion: Periodically awareness generation and mandatory use of personal protective equipment should be practiced among workers in cement factories.