Assessment of nutritional status, food consumption patterns, childhood trauma and stress among adolescent school girls

Adolescence is an age of rapid growth and physical development which makes it the most important period of life. Adolescent females are at higher risk of malnutrition because of their reproductive biology, poor social standing and lack of education thus they are more inclined towards unhealthy eating habits being concerned about their physical appearance. The study aimed to assess the nutritional status, identify the dietary patterns, stress levels; presence of childhood trauma and their factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 781 adolescent girls from public schools of Islamabad. The mean age of respondents was 16.53 (±1.11) years. 36% of the respondents were underweight, 5% were overweight while only 1.9% were obese. Three dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis: refined carb and fast food diet, prudent diet, and seafood and dairy product diet. The presence of childhood trauma was alarmingly high among the adolescent girls (54.4%). 18.8% of the adolescents reported high levels of stress while 68% experienced moderate stress. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that nutritional status has an impact on stress, trauma and dietary patterns. The study concludes that under-nutrition is a health problem among adolescent girls of public school. Presence of trauma and stress demands preventive inductive.