Nutritional status of adolescents in rural Wardha

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the study was to study the nutritional status of adolescents in rural area of Wardha.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out in two PHC areas of Wardha district with two stage sampling method. In the first stage, cluster-sampling method was used to identify 30-clusters in each Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) area separately. In the second stage, systematic random sampling method was used to identify 10 households per cluster. All adolescents in the household thus selected were included in the study. The mean body mass index (BMI) for age was used for classifying the nutritional status with CDC 2000 reference. Data thus generated was entered and analyzed using epi_info 2000.

Results: Overall, 53.8% of the adolescents were thin, 44% were normal and 2.2% were overweight. The mean body mass index (BMI) for boys and girls was 16.88 and 15.54 respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The prevalence of thinness was significantly (p<0.05) higher in early adolescence, girls, lower education (<8th standard) and lower economic status.

Conclusion: Majority (53.8%) of the adolescents in this study area are thin and only 2.2% were overweight.