Under-nutrition among adolescents: A survey in five secondary schools in rural Goa.
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Date
2011-01
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Abstract
Background. This study was done in 2008–09 to assess
the nutritional status among adolescents (10–19 years of age,
Classes V–XII) in 5 schools in rural Goa to inform the content
of a health promotion intervention in these schools.
Methods. Three methods were used. First, nutritional
status was measured by assessing body mass index among
1015 students during a health camp in each school. Second,
a diet analysis was done to measure energy and protein intake
of 76 randomly selected underweight students. Third, a selfreport
questionnaire survey measured the prevalence of hunger
among 684 students.
Results. One-third of students (338; 37.8% boys and
27.5% girls) who attended the health camps were underweight
and 59.2% of the 684 students who completed the survey
reported experiencing hunger due to inadequate food
consumption. More boys were underweight than girls
(p<0.001) and under-nutrition was uniform across all the
years of schooling. Energy intake of underweight students was
significantly lower than the recommended daily allowance.
The results were shared with the School Health Promotion
Advisory Boards to generate information on the stakeholders’
perception about the issue and ways to address it.
Conclusion. There is an immediate need to address the high burden of hunger and under-nutrition in adolescents of both sexes in schools by instituting routine annual monitoring of nutritional status, extending the mid-day meal programme to all school-going adolescents, providing nutritional counselling for underweight adolescents and expanding research on the causes and impact of under-nutrition and evaluation of the impact of the enhanced mid-day meal programme.
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Banerjee Sohini, Dias Amit, Shinkre Rajal, Patel Vikram. Under-nutrition among adolescents: A survey in five secondary schools in rural Goa. National Medical Journal of India. 2011 Jan-Feb; 24(1): 8-11.