Food habit and Nutritional status among school going adolescent of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

2024-11-21T12:26:11+0530

Introduction: Adolescence is a very important period because during this time, many rapid physiological and physical changes and due in part to hormonal changes taking place and any hindrance to normal development can have severe implications on the future health of an individual.

Objective: To assess the food habit and nutritional status among school going adolescent of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Methods: A cross-sectional study has been conducted among adolescent girls of some selected Area of the Dhaka division Bangladesh from January to December 2020. A total of 120 students belonging to 7^th, 8th, 9th and 10th classes participated. Information were collected regarding socio- demographic features and main eating habits from 10-19 years girls who were willing to participate and had no history of chronic illnesses like heart diseases, asthma, physically handicapped etc. Height and weight measurements were done by standard techniques and BMI was calculated using WHO Anthroplus software. BMI & Height for age were taken as a key indicator to assess their nutritional status. Data was analyzed by proportions, mean ± SD and χ2 test.

Results: Out of 120 adolescents included in our study. Among 120 adolescent’s male were 75% and female were 25%. Mean age of the study population was 13.33±1.09 years. Majority (83.3%) were Muslim. Class 10th (20.9%) students were lesser in number compared to class 7th, 8th & 9th. Most (61.6%) of them belonged to joint family. Very few parents (7.5% father &8.3% mother) were illiterate / just literate. Majority (97.5%) lived with their parents & most students (95.0%) ate with them. More than three fourths of the girls attained menarche. Mean age at menarche was 12.27 ± 0.85 years. Prevalence of thinness, overweight or obesity and stunting were 15.8%, 10.8% and 20.8% respectively. Significant association was found between different age groups, consumption of roots & tubers, cereals, puffed rice, green non-leafy vegetables, fatty foods, eating at fast food centre, skipping of meals, going hungry, physical activity, number of classes on healthy eating, trying to change their weight with the nutritional status of adolescent girls.

Conclusion: A comparison between urban and rural girl's nutrition with same economic condition was conducted. The prevalence of underweight was found 61.7% in urban area and 42.3% in rural area. There is a need to increase more nutritional counselling on healthy eating habits in school and thus to take appropriate interventions to improve the nutritional status of adolescent

Public Health Review: International Journal of Public Health Research

Food habit and Nutritional status among school going adolescent of Dhaka City, Bangladesh