Nutritional Status of School Going Adolescents in Rural and Urban Areas of Visakhapatnam
Keywords:
Adolescents, BMI, Malnutrition, Rural Urban schools.Abstract
Introduction: One of the greatest health problems globally as well as in India is under-nutrition among children. Early adolescence is a nutritionally vulnerable time when rapid physical growth increases nutrient demands. Inspite of several heath programs, conditions such as infections and malnutrition continue to be major threat leading to morbidities. This research intends to study and compare the nutritional status of school going adolescents aged between 11 yrs to 15 yrs in rural and urban areas of Visakhapatnam. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 800 early adolescents aged between 11 yrs to 15 yrs in government schools of rural and urban areas of Visakhapatnam. BMI-for-age was measured for assessment of nutritional status and BMI z scores were calculated based on WHO growth reference data for 5-19 yrs. Results: Among boys , 43.1% from rural and 35.11% from urban areas were thin ie having BMI for age < - 2SD. About 7.52% of boys in urban areas are in overweight or obese. Among girls (BMI for age <-2SD is almost similar in rural and urban areas. Anaemia is found to be more among adolescents residing in urban areas compared to rural. Conclusion: Malnutrition in both forms is more prevalent in boys both from rural and urban areas. Stringent implementation of Govt. schemes is needed to improve the nutritional status.
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Copyright (c) 2021 D. Errayya, Sunita Sreegiri, K.V. Phani Madhavi, V.V. Durga Prasad, B Devi Madhavi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.