Abstract

Malnutrition that occurs during adolescence has important consequences for the future growth and development of the individual, particularly in girls in developing countries. Besides limiting growth, adolescent malnutrition has important consequences for society. Despite this, there is a lack of information on the nutritional status of adolescent girls in Ethiopia. This study was therefore performed to help redress this lack of data and to provide information for future improvements by health planners and policy makers. A comparative cross-sectional study design was employed to determine the urban-rural disparity in nutritional status of adolescent school girls in the Mizan district in south-western Ethiopia. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 622 adolescent girls, 311 each from urban and rural locations. Trained field workers used structured questionnaires to obtain the desired information from the respondents. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight were collected using standard procedures and appropriate quality control measures. Height-for-age Z-scores and body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z-scores were generated using AnthroPlus software. The independent sample t-test and χ2 test were used to determine statistical significance. There were no significant differences in the ages or physical activities of the two populations of girls studied. Consumption of cereal, vegetables, sweets, sugars, fats, meat, and eggs was similar between the two groups, although slight differences were found with regard to legumes, milk, and fruit consumption. No significant differences were found in the prevalence of mild underweight girls and overweight girls in the urban and rural groups (26.5% vs 22.3% and 7.5% vs 5.2%, respectively). Significant stunting was, however, present in the rural population (40.9% vs. 17.8% in the urban group). Although overall lower than the reference data provided by WHO, the mean BMI-for-age Z-scores and height-for-age Z-scores were significantly higher in the urban girls than in their rural counterparts, with mean differences of 0.18 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02-0.34) and 0.58 (95% CI 0.45-0.72), respectively. Malnutrition was present in both urban and rural adolescent girls. The most obvious disparity between the two populations was significant stunting in the rural population. There is therefore an urgent need for strategies to address severe nutritional problems in rural adolescent girls and to improve the nutrition of adolescent girls within the urban environment.

Highlights

  • Malnutrition that occurs during adolescence has important consequences for the future growth and development of the individual, in girls in developing countries

  • 98.7% (614/622) of the adolescent girls enrolled were included in the analysis, of which 99% and 98.4% girls were from the urban and the rural groups, respectively

  • These results showed that there was no significant difference in the mean age (14.5±2.0 vs 14.3±2.0, p=0.25) of the girls from the urban and rural study groups, respectively

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Summary

Introduction

Malnutrition that occurs during adolescence has important consequences for the future growth and development of the individual, in girls in developing countries. Approximately 20%, 50%, and 45% of the final adult height, weight, and bone mass, respectively, are attained during this period[1,5,6] Such changes result in a peak in nutritional requirements[7,8] that exceeds that occurring during the remaining lifetime[3]. Improving the nutritional status of adolescent girls represents an important way of breaking the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition[5,14]. Such an investment in increasing the opportunities of adolescent girls should have a positive impact on their individual development and help long-term reductions in poverty[1,2]

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