Nutritional Status of Kurmi Adolescent Girls of Raipur City Chhattisgarh, India

Introduction: There are about 1.2 billion adolescents, a fifth of the world’s population, and their numbers are increasing. Hence, it is essential to assess their nutritional status. Objectives: 1. To assess the nutritional status of adolescent girls and 2. To identify the correlations between socio-demographic characters and nutritional status among them. Materials and Methods: 500 adolescent girls aged between 16 -19 years were selected from the higher secondary schools of Raipur city, Chhattisgarh. Pretested multiple choice questionnaire applied. Variable Studied: Age Group, Type of Family, Monthly Family Income, Literacy and occupation, Diet habit. Height, Weight and Body Mass Index Were measured. Results: The study found that 53.8% of the adolescent girls were thin (BMI≤18.5). The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency based on BMI (grade I, II and III) were 26.0%, 14.4%, and 13.4 % respectively. None of the girls was found to be obese. Only 3.6 percent girls were overweight and 42 percent girls were found normal. Conclusion: It is essential to implement adolescent friendly health services as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve the nutritional status.