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. Malnutrition has long term effects on the physical and mental health of adolescents.

Objectives: To find out the prevalence 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 (Jan 2019 – Dec 2019), including a total of 480 adolescent girls who were attending government high school. Observations and

Result: 480 girls were interviewed. As per WHO nutritional measurement criteria, adolescent girls were classified as per their anthropometric criteria, 50.63% of girls were moderately stunted and 7.29% had severe stunting. 7.29% of girls were in the category of severe thinness, 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 signs of vitamin A deficiency.

Conclusion: More than half of the (57.92%) late adolescent school girls were 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 will be a paradigm shift from the existing clinic-based services to promotion and prevention and reaching adolescents in their environment, such as in schools, families and communities. Skills-based nutrition education for the family and effective infection control and routine health assessment of school-going girls should be done.