Abstract
BackgroundThe rapid growth and changes that occur in adolescents increase the demand for macro and micronutrients and addressing their needs particularly in females would be an important step to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition. Thus we evaluated the status of anemia and its anthropometric, dietary and socio demographic determinants in female adolescents, west Ethiopia.MethodsA school based cross-sectional study was conducted among school going adolescent girls of Wayu Tuqa district, south west Ethiopia and a 3-stage random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed using STATA version12. Haemoglobin was measured by HemoCue 301+ photometer and WHO Anthro-plus software Version 1.0.4 was used to calculate BMI for age z-score. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to check associations and control confounding. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically.ResultThe overall prevalence of anemia was 27% (95% CI: 22.9–31%) of which 23, and 4% had mild and moderate anemia respectively. The proportion of thinness and overweight girls based on the BMI for age z-score was 33 and 3.6%, respectively. The odds of developing anemia were almost four times more likely among late adolescents as compared to early adolescents (AOR = 3.8 95%CI = 2.3 to 8.5).Adolescents from rural areas were 3.4 times more likely to have anemia as compared to their urban counterparts (AOR = 3.4 95%CI = 1.9 to7) and adolescents those who attained menarche were two times more likely to develop anemia compared to those who did not attained menarche (AOR = 2.3 95%CI = 1.34 to 4.2).ConclusionThe prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls was a moderate public health problem. To improve the prevailing nutritional problem, there must be inter-sectorial collaboration among health sectors and education sectors in providing nutritional education and counseling based on age and menarche status.
Highlights
The rapid growth and changes that occur in adolescents increase the demand for macro and micronutrients and addressing their needs in females would be an important step to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition
To improve the prevailing nutritional problem, there must be inter-sectorial collaboration among health sectors and education sectors in providing nutritional education and counseling based on age and menarche status
Since this period is often overlooked, adolescents are exposed to several forms of macro and micronutrient malnutrition [11, 12] and the period is the last opportunity to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational link of the nutritional problem [13, 14]
Summary
The rapid growth and changes that occur in adolescents increase the demand for macro and micronutrients and addressing their needs in females would be an important step to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition. Other important at risk groups are adolescents whose nutrient requirement increases during this period as a result of the rapid changes occurring in their physical dimension and body composition [11]. Since this period is often overlooked, adolescents are exposed to several forms of macro and micronutrient malnutrition [11, 12] and the period is the last opportunity to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational link of the nutritional problem [13, 14]. The prevalence of anemia is 14% in developed and 51% in sub Saharan countries [5, 15, 16] of which half of the anemic cases are female adolescents [13]
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