Nutritional Status and Chronic Disease among the Adult Tribal Population of Northeast India

A prospective case-control study was done on adult TB cases between the age 20-40 years diagnosed and registered in the different TB centers in Manipur, Northeast India. Cases were defined as subjects who were diagnosed as suffering from TB and taking regular medicines. Controls were apparently healthy subjects who had never suffered from tuberculosis as confirmed from doctors. Anthropometric measurements like stature, body weight and mid upper circumference were taken for the study. Body mass index (BMI) which is one of the index of nutritional status was computed. The percentage of chronic energy deficiency (CED) based on body mass index (BMI<18.5kg/m 2 ) were 42.6% among subjects suffering from TB and 4.2% from non-TB patients respectively. The prevalence of undernutrition based on mid upper arm circumference (MUAC<22.0cm) was found to be 64.8% for TB patients but none in the healthy controls. Based on the World Health Organization BMI classification, the prevalence of CED (BMI<18.5kg/m 2 ) among tuberculosis patients indicated a critical situation.