Vol. 9, Issue 6 (2020)

Author(s):
Vinod Kumari, Jatesh Kathpalia, Subhash Chander and Sangeeta Chahal

Abstract:
Women are equal partner in the progress of any country and play an important role in the development of human society. Health status of women make an impact on their fertility and their role in the development of society, however, some women have poor health status because of a variety of factors like lack of knowledge and unavailability of medical services. This present study was conducted on 120 rural women of two blocks of Kaithal district of Haryana state in India to assess their knowledge about food and health aspects and effect of various socio-economic factors on their knowledge and health status. It was found that more than 50% of the respondents had high general knowledge of food and health aspects whereas their specific knowledge was low (65.00%). General knowledge of rural women about food and health aspects was significantly associated with age, caste, education, land holding, subsidiary occupation, mass media exposure and their socio-economic status. In general, more percentage of respondents having high specific knowledge were from young age group, educated up to graduation, having medium land holding, service as subsidiary occupation, having high mass media exposure and socio-economic status and belonging to high income group. The main health problems of rural women were common diseases (33.33%), infectious diseases (22.50%), ENT/hair/mouth problem (20.00%) and pregnancy related problem (10.83%). It was suggested that specific knowledge about health and nutritional aspects must be imparted to rural women for better health of family and society.