Nutrition and health status of Anganwadi workers in urban centers of Faridabad district, Haryana, India.

Background: The performance of Anganwadi workers (AWWs) is often hindered by a lack of supervision, resources, infrastructure, helpers, fair honorarium, and the stress associated with their workload. This study aimed to assess the nutrition and health status of AWWs, who are relentlessly working toward improving the nutrition and health status of children, pregnant, and lactating mothers.

Design and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 46 AWWs aged 25 years and above working at the Anganwadi centers (AWCs) of Faridabad district, Haryana. Participants inclusion into the study was based on attending at least one training program and were willing to participate in the study. The nutrition knowledge was determined on ICMR dietary guidelines for adults; Minimum dietary diversity-women were assessed using 29-item diet quality questionnaire for India, practice and attitude toward healthy habits were assessed. Weight and Height were recorded and the body mass indexes (BMI) were computed.

Results: Findings revealed that though majority of AWWs were attended frequent nutrition training; having 10-15 years of experience and high nutrition knowledge score (9.8) and positive attitude and better healthy habits still their Mean Dietary Diversity-Women (MDD-W) score was 4.9, indicating poor dietary diversity, as it falls below the standard of consuming foods from at least five different food groups (38%). Approximately 80% of the AWWs were categorize as overweight and obese. Negative correlation was found between nutrition knowledge and diet quality indicators.

Conclusions: The study explored that most AWWs in Faridabad had appropriate dietary practices and food intakes but still had high BMI, which increased their vulnerability to health outcomes and impacted their work performance.