title: Nutrient adequacy and its correlation in a sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nutrient adequacy is the level of intake of an essential nutrient in relation to the nutrient requirement for adequate health, which is expressed as the percentage of recommended dietary allowance. To develop an effective nationwide preventive program to combat malnutrition, it is necessary not only to assess the nature and magnitude of the problem of nutrient inadequacy but to identify factors affecting it especially at the household level.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of nutrient adequacy in a sample of households in a rural area of Darjeeling district and to find out the factors associated with nutrient adequacy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out from January 2014 to December 2014 in 821 households of Darjeeling district, India. The major dependent variable used in this study was the mean nutrient adequacy ratio of a household and the independent variables were number of family members, number of under-five children in the family, literacy of head of the family, literacy of the wife of the head of the family, income of the family, and percentage expenditure on food.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of nutrient adequate households was found to be 35.3% among the study households. It was observed that the percentage expenditure on food had the highest contribution toward nutrient adequacy, followed by number of under-five children in the family and literacy of the wife of the head of the family. Undernutrition was found to be prevalent in 56.6% of the households.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Majority of the study population had a diet less than the required amount and expectedly, undernutrition was also present in huge proportions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Sharmistha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacherjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Saikat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Kuntala
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine and Sagore Datta Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Dipta Kanti
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
keywords: Household; nutrient adequacy; undernutrition