A Study of Nutritional Health Problems of Adolescent Girls in Rural Area of Nagpur District: A School Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: "Adolescence" literally means "to emerge" or "to attain identity" and is essentially the period of rapid physical and psychological development. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “adolescent” as an individual between 10 to 19 years of age. About 19.7% of Indian population is adolescents. Nutritional health problems are one of the important health problem faced by adolescents. Prevalence of anemia in adolescents (15-19 years) girls is 54%. Underweight is seen among 46.4% adolescent girls. Hence this study was conducted to find out nutritional health problems of adolescent girls in a rural area of Nagpur district. Menstrual hygiene was also studied. Material and methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in one of the randomly selected school in a rural area of Nagpur. Calculated sample size was 145, though the study was carried out on 150 adolescent girls in August 2019 using a pre-designed and pretested questionnaire. Results: Mean age of study participants was 14.87± 2.77 years. Prevalence of anemia was found to be 80%. Prevalence of undernutrition was 36%. None of the student received weekly iron and folic acid tablets in last three months. Only 28% study subjects received information of menstrual hygiene prior to menarche. Conclusion: Prevalence of anemia and undernutrition was found to be high in a school of rural area of Nagpur district. WIFS program should be strengthened through inter-sectoral collaboration among health and education sectors.