A collaborative EEC study on seasonality and marginal nutrition: the Glasgow Hyderabad (S. India) Study.

ABSTRACT

As part of a collaborative project involving three European institutes and institutes in three developing countries, various measurements were made during an 18 month period of adaptations to seasonal food shortages. This study was carried out on a group of 102 economically poor adult women living in a large village near Hyderabad, S. India. These women not only looked after their households but also did agricultural work in the fields. A control group of 30 'middle-income' women were also studied; they did only limited work in the household and no work in the fields. Serial measurements (six in all, three in the harvest season and three in the lean season) were made of body weight, body fat, and various anthropometric variables. Comparisons were also made between these two seasons in food intake, BMR, activity levels and patterns, and a test of exercise capacity. There was a small loss in body weight and body fat (about 0.5 kg), and reductions in energy intake, BMR, and exercise capacity in the working women. No changes occurred in the control group of middle-income women. The nutritional stress imposed by the seasonal food shortage seemed relatively minor in degree, but did seem to induce some small adaptations.