Morbidity Pattern among the Adolescent Girls: A Study in the Social Welfare Hostels for Schedule Castes, Nellore City, A.P, India

Abstract

WHO defines Adolescence as the segment of life between the ages of 10-19 years. Adolescence is a transition phase through which a child becomes an adult. It is characterized by rapid growth and development; physiologically, psychologically and socially. 1 85% of them live in developing countries. 2 About one-fifth of India's population is in the adolescent age group of 10-19 years. Adolescents constitute a sizeable proportion of the Indian mothers. In Andhra Pradesh, this segment constitutes approximately 5.03% of the population. The importance of this target group lies in the fact that they are going to be the mothers of tomorrow-whose well being is critically important for improving the nutritional, health and educational status of women in the State. Various base line surveys also revealed that the health, nutritional and educational status of adolescent girls are at sub-optimal level. 33 The scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have been identified as two most ABSTRACT Objective: To study the Morbidity pattern among the adolescent girls in the social welfare hostels for scheduled castes. Study Period: June 2008-May 2009; Type of Study: Descriptive Cross sectional study. Study setting: Social welfare hostels for scheduled caste girls in Nellore city. Participants: 542 adolescent girls Sampling frame: Adolescent girls residing in six social welfare hostels for scheduled caste students in Nellore Variables studied: socio demographic profile, morbidity pattern. Appropriate statistical packages were used to analyze. Results: Majority of the girls were from rural background (83.58%). 35.79% were in middle school, 86% of girls stayed less than five years in the hostel. The major prevalent morbid conditions among girls were Pediculosis 83.21%, Dysmenorrhea 43.6% Dental caries 28.04%, Skin disorders 26.4% Conclusion: Pediculosis, poor personal hygiene and dysmenorrhea were found to have significance across the age groups. High morbidity was found in 11-13 year age group.

Morbidity pattern among school going adolescent girls of a North Indian district

“…8 Susmitha et al in their study observed 0.73% lymphadenopathy. 3 In the present study, significantly higher hair problems were in rural than urban adolescent school girls with an overall 16.4% girls were suffering with hair problems.…”

“…These results are in accordance with that reported by Susmitha et al (12.36%). 3 Singh et al also reported defective vision in 4.5% girls. 8 This difference may be due to inadequate indoor lighting.…”

“…The importance of this target group lies in the fact that they are going to be the mothers of tomorrow -whose well-being is critically important for improving the health status. 3 Although there are many programs that focus on the needs of adolescent girls, but as the health needs of them are tremendous and these have seldom been met, as a consequence of this, their health status is low. 4 This study focuses on morbidity pattern of school going adolescent girls in Lucknow district which will reveal their health and related conditions and will ultimately navigate health promoting bodies to enumerate priorities and accordingly to plan the nature and extent of health services needed for them.…”

A Study of Common Morbidities Among Adolescent Girls in the Urban Slums of Silchar, Assam

“…A study by Basu et al (9) it was seen that only 13.6% girls were without any health problem, but 86.4% had one or more health problems. The present study thus corroborates with the above studies of different workers.…”

Morbidity profile of adolescents reported to an urban health center in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu, India

“…In Andhra Pradesh, a study done by Susmitha KM et al reported that pallor (41%), dysmenorrhoea (43.6%), dental caries were the leading causes of morbidity in adolescents. 6 The difference in the morbidity pattern could be due to regional variation. External injuries are common among males, a study from Delhi reported that about 77.5% of adolescents are at risky behaviors, leading to road-traffic accidents and deaths.…”