A comparative study on nutritional assessment of adolescent population from urban and rural areas

Abstract

Aims: The health and nutritional status of the children affects not only physical growth but also cognitive development and country's economic growth. Adolescents are the future of the nation and more vulnerable group. The study was, therefore, carried out to determine and compare the nutritional status of adolescents among rural and urban government school students in district Patiala, Punjab. Settings and Design: Cross sec-tional study was conducted on 600 adolescents, 300 rural and 300 urban students. Methods and Material: The nutritional status has been as-sessed with the help of anthropometric measurements. The weight and height were recorded of each student and BMI was calculated. weight for age, height for age and BMI for age Z scores compared with WHO 2007 growth standards. Statistical analysis used: The independent sample t-test was done to assess differences in the anthropometric variables. A two-tailed p value less than 0.05 considered significant. Results: Among rural students 27% were undernutrition as compared to 8.3% urban students with p value is <0.001 which was significant. 11% of rural students were significantly underweight as compared to urban students of only 1% (p <0.001). 69.4% of age group 10-13 years students were significant-ly underweight as compare to other age groups (p value <0.001). Similarly 49.5% of age group 10-13 years students were significantly stunted with p value < 0.001. Conclusions: Our results reveal that undernutrition is more prevalent among rural adolescent students. So, Government should implement some more special programs for improving adolescents health.