Nutritional Status and its Associated Factors among Adolescents

Maintaining energy balance among adolescents is of paramount challenge. Many adolescent boys and girls in developing countries enter either with negative or positive energy balances and both results into diseases and ill health. The study aimed to find the nutritional status and its associated factors in school going adolescents of Lekhnath Municipality of Kaski district of Nepal. Cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in public secondary schools of Lekhnath Municipality among 356 adolescents through cluster random sampling. OMRON body fat analyzer, bathroom scale, stadiometer were used for body fat percentage and BMI calculation. Pretested self-administrable questionnaire was used to assess nutritional factors of adolescents. Frequency tabulation, chi square test, binomial logistic regression and correlation were done for statistical analyses. Prevalence of underweight, overweight, stunting and thinness were found to be 50.6 percent, 11 percent, 2.5 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. According to body fat percentage- 49.4 percent, 32.2 percent and 18.4 percent were lean, normal and obese. Seventy percent of adolescents performed high physical activity followed by 31.7 and 14 percent moderate to low physical activity. Only 3.1 percent of adolescents consumed recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Age, gender, religion, ethnicity, family type and availability of kitchen garden were associated with body mass index. Early adolescent, male, Hindu, students from nuclear families were found more underweight than their counterparts. Underweight is more prevalent than overweight among adolescents. Health promoting programs including kitchen garden and fruits and vegetables intake are recommended. Keywords: Nutrition, adolescent, factor, overweight, underweight, developing, physical