Assessment of the nutritional status of adolescent girls aged between 15 to 18 years studying in government high school in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of malnutrition among adolescent girls is high in India. Malnutritionhas long term effects on the physical and mental health of adolescents. Objectives: To find out theprevalence of underweight, overweight and stunting and correlate with a dietary pattern, socio-demographic profile and prevalence of clinical anemia and signs of vitamin and mineral deficiency.Method: This is a community-based cross-sectional observational study conducted for 1 year (Jan2019 – Dec 2019), including a total of 480 adolescent girls who were attending government highschool. Observations and Result: 480 girls were interviewed. As per WHO nutritional measurementcriteria, adolescent girls were classified as per their anthropometric criteria, 50.63% of girls weremoderately stunted and 7.29% had severe stunting. 7.29% of girls were in the category of severethinness, 36.04% had thinness and 9.37% were overweight. 28.12% had conjunctival pallor(anaemia), 4.80% had dental caries, 1.46% had vitamin B complex deficiency and 1.04% had signsof vitamin A deficiency. Conclusion: More than half of the (57.92%) late adolescent school girlswere stunted, 43.33% were having some form of thinness and 28.12% had clinical anaemia.Effective implementation of government programs such as the RKSK and Sabla Yojana program willbe a paradigm shift from the existing clinic-based services to promotion and prevention and reachingadolescents in their environment, such as in schools, families and communities. Skills-basednutrition education for the family and effective infection control and routine health assessment ofschool-going girls should be done.

A hospital-based cross-sectional study on health problems and the factors affecting the health of adolescent girls in rural population

“…This study enrolled adolescent females who were aged between 10 to 17 years. The age distribution findings showed that the majority of the adolescents were in early adolescence, which is comparable to the studies by Nair et al and Phuljhele et al 4,5 In this study, the socioeconomic status of the patients showed that the majority of them were of low socioeconomic status. Amongst the subjects, the highest number of families belonged to an upper lowermiddle-class group, and most of the family types were nuclear families, which is similar to other studies reported by Kumar et al and Patanwar et al 6,7 In the present study, the mean age of menarche was 13.2±0.…”

Evaluation of Prevalence and Knowledge about Anaemia and Their Determinants Among Adolescent Girls

“…88% of anaemic girls had attained menarche. Similar findings were reported by Tesfaye et al [25]. Premenstrual symptoms like abdominal pain, backache, loss of appetite, abdominal discomfort nausea vomiting headache, body pains, tiredness, discomfort was experienced by the girls.…”

Stunting and Underweight among Adolescent Girls of Indigenous Communities in Telangana, India: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Socioeconomic factors influencing adolescent malnutrition include gender, wealth, social status, religion and maternal education [49]. Over 50% of stunting and thinness is reported for late adolescent girls in Chhattisgarh [50]. Despite constitutional protection, positive policies and earmarked budgets, India's 104 million tribal people remain among the poorest and most nutritionally deprived social groups (Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GOI, 2016-2017) (the Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the Nodal Ministry for overall policy, planning and the coordination of programs of development for Scheduled Tribes; detailed report available at https://tribal.nic.in/writereaddata/AnnualReport/AnnualReport2016-17.pdf, accessed on 20 December 2023).…”