Abstract

Background: Rolling Beedi is an indigenous method of making smokable tobacco using tobacco leaves that provided employment for millions of Indians. Beedi rolling is mostly made by women and girls sitting at home and is regarded as primarily as women’s work. Objectives: 1.To estimate the morbidities among women Beedi workers 2.To determine association between different factors influencing the morbidities.

Methodology:  A community based cross sectional study conducted among 203 female Beedi workers in the Budhawarpet, urban slum of the Kurnool town which is the field practice area of Kurnool medical college from September-2017 to October 2017. Data was collected by face to face interview using predesigned structured questionnaire after approval from institutional ethical committee and by taking informed consent from participants. Data was analyzed by using MS Excel. Results: The study comprised of 203 women Beedi workers. Mean age of the study subjects was 43±0.94 years and 145 (72.5%) subjects were illiterates and most of them are belongs to Muslim community. Out of the 203 study subjects most common morbidity was musculoskeletal problems in 125(62.5%) and then followed by eye problems in 80(40%) and respiratory problems in 70(35%), neurological in 40(20%), skin problems in 15(7.5%), gynaecological problems in 4 (2%).

Conclusion: Most common morbidities among women Beedi workers were Muskulosketal problems, and then eye problems and respiratory problems.                                                      

Keywords: Women, Beedi workers, Morbidity profile.