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.