Socio-economic, health and nutritional status of the villagers in the Nong Wai irrigation area, Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand.

ABSTRACT

Studies were carried out from June 1974 to May 1975 on the socio-economic status, health and nutritional status of the people in 4 villages, in the irrigation area of the Nong Wai Pioneer Agricultural Project of Khon Kaen Province, Northeast Thailand. The result obtained were compared with those in 2 non-irrigated villages in the same province, in order to identify the health and nutritional problems which might arise during the water resource development in the irrigation area. It was found that in the irrigated villages 90% of the peoples were farmers, while in the non-irrigated villages all were farmers. The socio-economic status of the people in the irrigated villages was much better than those in the non-irrigated ones. The income per family in the former was about three times greater than that in the latter. In the study of the health conditions of the villagers, the vulnerable age group including pre-school children under 7 years of age and school children in the elementary school class 1 and class 2, aged 7-9 years old, served as subjects for investigation. Haematological and physical examinations revealed many children with mild to moderate anaemia, vitamin B2 deficiency and a few cases of hepatomegaly. Anaemic children were found to be more prevalent in the non-irrigated villages than in the irrigated area. The overall parasitic infection rates in children in the irrigated and non-irrigated villages were similar with respect to severity of the infection. Hookworm infection, opisthorchiasis, strongyloidiasis and giardiasis were the leading parasitic infections, while amoebiasis was rare. Ascariasis and trichuriasis were not found. However, the first two helminthic infections had a low grade of intensity. The nutritional status of pre-school children, showed that there were more children with good growth in the irrigated villages than in the non-irrigated one. Serum proteins, albumin and globulin, and urinary urea nitrogen-creatinine ratio revealed normal findings indicating that the children had sufficient protein intake. The results of the urinary hydroxyproline-creatinine index suggested that many of the children in both groups of the villages were at marginal malnutrition status. Surveys on domestic animals including cattle, buffaloes, pigs, and field rats revealed no important zoonotic diseases except leptospirosis in a few rats. Some fish were found to harbour metacercariae of Opisthorchis viverrini, while some snails were positive for cercariae of O. viverrini, Schistosoma spindale, and Echinostoma malayanum. The overall findings indicated that the water resource development by establishing better irrigation, resulted in an improved socio-economic and nutritional status among the villagers, but health conditions and associated parasitic diseases and some nutritional deficiency still existed in the children. However, the findings from this study provide only preliminary data concerning the socio-economic status, health, and nutritional status of the villagers in the irrigation area...