Impact of micronutrient fortified food supplement on nutritional profile among ginning women workers

Abstract

Ginning factory discharges large amount of cotton dust, which might decrease haematological indices among the selected subjects. An attempt was made to study the haematological indices of women labourers located in the urban areas of Tirupur and Erode Districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Totally 150 non-pregnant, non-lactating adult women performing varied textile tasks and aged between 20 to 60 years were identified randomly from ginning (n=150) (gin house, gutter and sorting sections) industries. Socio demographic, work pattern, nutritional and health status were assessed by administering a questionnaire. Further, to correct micronutrient deficiency, iron and folic acid fortified soy biscuits were formulated. Intervention study was conducted among the selected moderate anaemic ginners (n=20). l00 g of micronutrient fortified soy biscuit containing 13.5 g of protein, 8.4 mg of iron (ferrous fumarate) and 120 μg of folic acid was supplemented to experimental group of women as a midmorning and midevening snack for a period of four months. Therapeutic efficacy of food supplement was studied by assessing their anthropometric and haematological conditions at pre and post supplementation period. Anthropometric indices showed an improvement in weight (48.7 ± 4.98 to 51.5 ± 6.25) and BMI (19.02 to 23.04). Haematological indices revealed that the mean haemoglobin of experimental group improved to 11.04 ± 0.56 g/dl from 9.1 ± 0.67. Similarly increase in serum iron from 61.9 ± 3.24 to 65.0 ± 2.95 μg/dl was noticed and showed a significant difference at 1 per cent. Improvement in total protein (6.62 ± 0.49 to 8.11 ± 0.20 g/dl), albumin (3.9 ± 0.36 to 4.73 ± 0.31 g/dl) and globulin (2.82 ± 0.24 to 3.8 ± 0.29 g/dl) showed significant difference at 1 per cent level. Similarly, an increase in Total WBC count (7326 ± 19.5 to 9725 ± 25.5 cumm), reduction in lymphocyte (942.16 ± 3.6 to 35.2 ± 2.2 per cent) seen among the ginning women workers.