Diet Pattern and Nutritional Status of Women Working in Call Centers of India

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the objective to assess the present nutritional status and diet pattern of the women working at call centers and also to counsel them about balanced diet. The study was conducted only on those call centers which were identical in nature according to their working hours, type of calling (international) and size (big). For the study purposive sampling technique was used and total 200 women were selected from major 4 metropolitan cities of India i.e. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Noida. From each city 50 women were selected. To assess the nutritional status of women working at call centers, anthropometry measurements were recorded including height and weight. From these measurements the Basal Metabolic Index (BMI) was calculated. To explore the diet pattern, 24 hours diet intake and food frequency intake were taken. Results indicated that most of the respondents were obese and overweight. When the diet of women working at call centre was analyzed on the basis of major food groups it was found that cereal group or carbohydrates consumption was very high and even diet had pulses consumption in moderation but, vegetable and fruits consumption was less. Even the intake of milk and milk products in their diet was low. The diet was majorly of junk food. Therefore it can be concluded that there is a great need of intervention for nutritional counselling at such work places. Index Terms-women of call centers, nutritional status, BMI, 24 hour dietary recall