Nutritional Assessment of Selected Transgenders

Abstract

Around 5,00,000 to 1,00,000 transgender “Hijra” populations were found in India nearly 30,000 were recorded in Tamil Nadu. People with same sexual behavior are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders, negative health sequences such as body image dissatisfaction and eating disorder. Transgender tend to eat more or less to express their anger, depression on food. So they eat more or skip meals leading to malnutrition and obesity. Transgender people use tobacco products as much higher rates than others, this can lead to a number of serious health problems including heart diseases, high blood pressure, lung diseases and lung cancer and they are having sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. For the present study one hundred and twenty transgender in the age group of 20 to 70 years were selected by stratified random sampling. All the selected subjects were assessed for their nutritional status through anthropometric, clinical and dietary techniques. The results pertaining to the study revealed that 12 per cent of the selected transgender were underweight, five per cent were ideal weight, 26 per cent were overweight and 19 per cent were obese. Among the selected transgender people ten per cent of the selected subjects in the age group of 20to 30 yearsworked in private concern, 13 per cent of the subjects had started business, seven per cent of the subjects collecting money from the shops, three per cent are working in government jobs. Based on HUDCO income classification (2007) forty per cent of the subjects belong to low income level they were earned up to 5000 to 7000. It was evident from the result that the selected subjects did not have enough knowledge regarding the importance of nutrition and showed one per cent significance. No significance was seen in their proteins and carbohydrates intake with ICMR value. Life style pattern showed that eighty percent of the subjects had the habit of watching television more than 30 minutes, thirteen per cent of the transgender people is not having their food properly and they also had the habit of skipping meals.