School-Based Study to Assess the Nutritional Status (BMI based) of Adolescents of Gojra City of District Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, Pakistan
School-Based Study to Assess the Nutritional Status
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v4i05.918Keywords:
Adolescents, Nutritional Status, School-Based, AnthropometryAbstract
Adolescence is the make-or-break stage of life. Major physical, mental, and psychological growth takes place at this age. Adequate and balanced nutrition is a vital requirement to support this phase. Adolescents living in developing and low-income countries are more likely to face nutritional challenges. Poor nutritional status during adolescence is an important determinant of health outcomes. Objective: To analyze the nutritional status (BMI based) of school-going adolescents in Gojra city, Punjab, Pakistan. Methods: A school-based cross-sectional survey was carried out covering 635 (6-8 grade) school-going adolescents (boys and girls) from public schools in Gojra city. Data were collected through anthropometric measures taken. Symptoms of malnutrition were also assessed. Mean and frequencies were reported for demographic variables and symptoms of malnutrition while two sample Independent T-test was used to compare the means of groups under study using SPSS version-23. Results: The overall prevalence of underweight in boys was found (33.9%) as compared to adolescent girls (32.3%). It was also found that malnutrition and related health complications were higher in adolescents with lower BMI values. Conclusions: Adolescent boys and girls were found with a high prevalence of malnutrition along with other symptoms.
Adolescence is the make-or-break stage of life. Major physical, mental, and psychological growth takes place at this age. Adequate and balanced nutrition is a vital requirement to support this phase. Adolescents living in developing and low-income countries are more likely to face nutritional challenges. Poor nutritional status during adolescence is an important determinant of health outcomes. Objective: To analyze the nutritional status (BMI based) of school-going adolescents in Gojra city, Punjab, Pakistan. Methods: A school-based cross-sectional survey was carried out covering 635 (6-8 grade) school-going adolescents (boys and girls) from public schools in Gojra city. Data were collected through anthropometric measures taken. Symptoms of malnutrition were also assessed. Mean and frequencies were reported for demographic variables and symptoms of malnutrition while two sample Independent T-test was used to compare the means of groups under study using SPSS version-23. Results: The overall prevalence of underweight in boys was found (33.9%) as compared to adolescent girls (32.3%). It was also found that malnutrition and related health complications were higher in adolescents with lower BMI values. Conclusions: Adolescent boys and girls were found with a high prevalence of malnutrition along with other symptoms.
References
Caleyachetty R, Thomas GN, Kengne AP, Echouffo-Tcheugui JB, Schilsky S, Khodabocus J, et al. The double burden of malnutrition among adolescents: analysis of data from the Global School-Based Student Health and Health Behavior in School-Aged Children surveys in 57 low-and middle-income countries. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2018 Aug; 108(2): 414-24. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy105
Keats EC, Das JK, Salam RA, Lassi ZS, Imdad A, Black RE, et al. Effective interventions to address maternal and child malnutrition: an update of the evidence. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. 2021 May; 5(5): 367-84. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30274-1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30274-1
World Health Organization. Adolescent friendly health services: an agenda for change. World Health Organization; 2003. [Last Cited: 26th Jul 2023]. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/67923/WHO_FCH_CAH_02.14.pdf.
Lillie M, Lema I, Kaaya S, Steinberg D, Baumgartner JN. Nutritional status among young adolescents attending primary school in Tanzania: contributions of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) for adolescent assessment. BMC Public Health. 2019 Dec; 19(1): 1-2. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7897-4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7897-4
Das JK, Salam RA, Thornburg KL, Prentice AM, Campisi S, Lassi ZS, et al. Nutrition in adolescents: physiology, metabolism, and nutritional needs. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2017 Apr; 1393(1): 21-33. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13330. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13330
Roba KT, Abdo M, Wakayo T. Nutritional status and its associated factors among school adolescent girls in Adama City, Central Ethiopia. Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences. 2016 May; 6(3): 1-8.
Arage G, Assefa M, Worku T. Socio-demographic and economic factors are associated with nutritional status of adolescent school girls in Lay Guyint Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia. SAGE Open Medicine. 2019 Apr; 7: 2050312119844679. doi: 10.1177/2050312119844679. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312119844679
Kesuma ZM, Rusyana A, Rahayu L. Factors affecting adolescent nutritional status in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. InJournal of Physics: Conference Series. IOP Publishing. 2020 Mar; 1490(1): 012049. doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/1490/1/012049. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1490/1/012049
Gebregyorgis T, Tadesse T, Atenafu A. Prevalence of thinness and stunting and associated factors among adolescent school girls in Adwa town, North Ethiopia. International Journal of Food Science. 2016 Oct; 2016: 1-8. doi: 10.1155/2016/8323982. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8323982
Ribeiro-Silva RD, Fiaccone RL, Conceição-Machado ME, Ruiz AS, Barreto ML, Santana ML. Body image dissatisfaction and dietary patterns according to nutritional status in adolescents. Jornal De Pediatria. 2018 Mar; 94: 155-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jped.2017.05.005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2017.05.005
Akseer N, Al‐Gashm S, Mehta S, Mokdad A, Bhutta ZA. Global and regional trends in the nutritional status of young people: a critical and neglected age group. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2017 Apr; 1393(1): 3-20. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13336
Narayan J, John D, Ramadas N. Malnutrition in India: status and government initiatives. Journal of Public Health Policy. 2019 Mar; 40: 126-41. doi: 10.1057/s41271-018-0149-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-018-0149-5
Salam RA, Das JK, Irfan O, Ahmed W, Sheikh SS, Bhutta ZA. Effects of preventive nutrition interventions among adolescents on health and nutritional status in low‐and middle‐income countries: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2020 Jun; 16(2): e1085. doi: 10.1002/cl2.1085. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1085
Saeedullah A, Khan MS, Andrews SC, Iqbal K, Ul-Haq Z, Qadir SA, et al. Nutritional status of adolescent Afghan refugees living in peshawar, Pakistan. Nutrients. 2021 Aug; 13(9): 3072. doi: 10.3390/nu13093072. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093072
Canavan CR and Fawzi WW. Addressing knowledge gaps in adolescent nutrition: toward advancing public health and sustainable development. Current Developments in Nutrition. 2019 Jul; 3(7): nzz062. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzz062. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzz062
Baye K. The Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved without improving maternal and child nutrition. Journal of Public Health Policy. 2017 Feb; 38: 137-45. doi: 10.1057/s41271-016-0043-y. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-016-0043-y
Silva SU, Barufaldi LA, Andrade SS, Santos MA, Claro RM. Nutritional status, body image, and their association with extreme weight control behaviors among Brazilian adolescents, National Adolescent Student Health Survey 2015. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia. 2018 Nov; 21(1): 1-13.
Teferi DY, Atomssa GE, Mekonnen TC. Overweight and undernutrition in the cases of school-going adolescents in Wolaita Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia: cross-sectional study. Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2018 Mar; 2018: 1-10. doi: 10.1155/2018/8678561. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/8678561
Nithya DJ and Bhavani RV. Dietary diversity and its relationship with nutritional status among adolescents and adults in rural India. Journal of Biosocial Science. 2018 May; 50(3): 397-413. doi: 10.1017/S0021932017000463. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932017000463
Karim A and Qaisar R. Anthropometric measurements of school-going-girls of the Punjab, Pakistan. BMC Pediatrics. 2020 Dec; 20: 1-3. doi: 10.1186/s12887-020-02135-4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-020-02135-4
Ahmad MS, SA HZ, Medhat N, Farooq H, Ahmad D, Nasir W. Frequency of underweight and stunting among children entering school in a small urban locality and their association with academic performance. JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association. 2018 Jan; 68(1): 28-32.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Pakistan Journal of Health Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open-access journal and all the published articles / items are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For comments