South Asian Housewives; Are We Concerned Enough on Their Health?

Abstract

Although South Asian females are known to be empowered with abilities and willingness to involve in different careers, the number of ‘housewives’ in the region is still high. That is mainly due to one redeeming quality of majority among the regional females; the greater concern towards their family and children. With such commitments and with recent changes of lifestyles and social values in South Asian food cultures, it was doubtful whether they are concerning on their own health and nutritional needs adequately.

To assess this scenario, a study was designed to determine whether the stipulated and such other reasons have an impact to daily nutrient intake of the individuals in the mentioned social segment, who represent the basement of the South Asian family system. Considering an age range between 20–55 years, 800 housewives were selected in Sri Lanka, by disproportionate stratified random sampling. Selected individuals were interviewed using a structured questionnaire, especially to assess their daily food combinations and their consumed portion sizes. Frequently consumed quantitative meal combinations were then chemically analyzed for their macronutrient compositions. Obtained results were compared with world Health organizations’ (WHO) Reference Dietary Intake (RDI) levels of nutrients. The results reveal of significantly (p<0.05) higher daily fat (65.3 ±5.6 g/day) and protein (86.7 ±4.5 g/day) intakes than WHO recommendation levels. However, comparatively lower, but non-significant (p>0.05) daily consumption of dietary fiber (34.3 ±3.3 g/day) levels by selected participants was observed. Digestible carbohydrate intake levels (302.1 ±22.8 g/day) were significantly (p<0.05) higher than reference levels. This indicates of a considerable risk for many individuals in the concerned social segment, of having non-communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia due to over-nutrition of “calorie generating macronutrients”.