Puberty and nutritional status in adolescents

Malnutrition is a leading cause of decreased school performance and an array of conditions, including delayed puberty. This study was conducted to assess the nutritional status and the serum testosterone, estradiol and prolactin levels in secondary school students aged 11-16 years. A total of 176 secondary school students within Calabar metropolis participated in this study of which 49.4% were male and 50.6% were female. The pubertal status—puberche, thelarche and menarche of the subjects were documented. Nutritional status was determined using standardized technique for anthropometry and WHO Anthroplus software. Sex hormone levels were assayed using ELISA. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS. Analysis of the results showed that 51% of the boys exhibited some degree of pubarche compared to 47.2% of the females. Thelarche and menarche were exhibited by 73% and 49.4% of girls respectively. A comparison of age, anthropometric indices, prolactin, estradiol and testosterone in male and female subjects in the study showed that girls had significantly higher body mass index (p = 0.023), estradiol (p = 0.0001) and prolactin (p=0.007) but significantly lowered testosterone (p=0.0001) compared to their male counterparts. There was however, no statistical significant difference (p>0.05) in the mean height and weight of both groups. The nutritional status in the study showed that 3.4% of the adolescents were stunted, 6.8% were wasting, 89.2% were normal, 3.4% were overweight while 0.6% were obese. The boys and girls had comparable frequencies of stunting, thinness/wasting, normal, overweight and obesity. Five adolescent girls and seven adolescent boys showed predisposition to delayed puberty. Poor nutritional status and low sex hormones were found to be predisposing factors for delayed puberty, and more male were so disposed.