Prevalence and Determinants of Obesity/overweight and Undernutrition Among School Going Adolescents 10 to 17 years in Rural Area of South India

Abstract

Introduction: India is going through a nutritional, epidemic and economic transition. Despite undernutrition among adolescents being a major health concern, there is an additional increased burden of overweight and obesity in this group of individuals. Aim: To determine the prevalence of dual burden of undernutrition and overweight or obesity among school going adolescents aged 10 to 17 years at the population level and determine the associated socioeconomic factors. Materials and Methods: A Cross-sectional community based observational model comprising of 900 school going adolescents aged 10 to 17 years in and around Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, BG Nagara was adopted. A semi structured questionnaire was administered to obtain the sociodemographic details. Height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference were measured using prior validated and standard tools. Association between nutritional parameters and various risk factors was done by chi-square test or Fisher Exact test. Logistic regression analysis was done. p <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of stunting and underweight was (110/900) 12.2% & (524/900) 58.2% respectively. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was 3.3% & 0.8% respectively. Prevalence of dual burden (underweight, overweight and obesity) was 62.3 %. There was significant association between dual burden and age, maternal education and socioeconomic status (p-0.019, p≤0.001, p≤0.001 respectively). Conclusion: The prevalence of dual burden was high among adolescents. There is a need for policy makers to take measures to combat this dual burden to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with dual burden of malnutrition.

Keywords

• adolescent health
• malnutrition
• thinness