Nutritional status of adolescent tribal girls: A community based study
Journal Title: Medpulse International Journal of Community Medicine - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 3
Abstract
Back ground: Adolescence age group is 10-19 years; according to World Health Organization definition. Adolescent age people feel a sense of independence, but depend on adults for their material needs. This phase of life cycle is marked by special characteristics which include rapid physical growth and development, social, sexual and psychological maturity, onset of sexual activity and reproduction cycle, experimentation, development of adult mental processes, adult identity and transition. Anaemia is a widely prevalent health problem among adolescent girls. Both the 1992 ICMR study on Iron and Folic Acid supplementation and UNICEF have reported low mean haemoglobin levels and low nutritional intake of proteins, calories, and macro/micronutrients among adolescent girls and pregnant mothers. Poor nutrition is the preliminary cause that leads to poor physical growth and stunting. The NFHS-3 reported that the prevalence of anaemia was highest (56 %) among adolescents (ages 15–19) compared with other group of women in reproductive age. Materials and Method: To evaluate nutritional status in tribal adolescent girls through anthropometry. To asses haemoglobin status of study subjects Calculated sample size 425, total adolescent girls in 18 habitations are 1572, every 4th adolescent girl who was available taken for the study by using systematic random sampling method. Results: Majority of the study subjects (59.1%) were from Lambadi tribe, followed by Chenchu (35.8%) and Yerukala (5.2%). Mean height was observed to be less than that of 50th percentile (according to NCHS standards) in the respective age. Stunting was observed in younger age group i.e. 10-13 years (17.4%) and it was found to be statistically significant. In present study 44% were anemic with mean Hb of 12.05 and 56% had normal haemoglobin levels (>12 gm/dl), 38.1% were mildly anemic and 5.9% moderately anemic. There were no severe cases of anaemia. Conclusion: In the present study, we have observed that tribal adolescent girls height and weight were low compared to national standards. Their nutritional status is deprived and majority were anaemic. In depth studies and rigorous health interventions are needed to address these problems.
Authors and Affiliations
Sridhar D, Gauthami N
Keywords
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