Publication

Abstract : Background: Adolescents constitute about 243 million of population in India (UNICEF, 2016). Adolescent girls are considered to be a nutritionally vulnerable segment of the population. The objective of the study was to screen malnourished adolescent girls from the selected area and to assess the impact of nutrition education programme on nutritional status of the selected subjects. Methods and Materials: A total number of 1300 school going adolescent girls (13-17 years) were randomly selected for the study from 10 different schools. Study was conducted in Puttaparthi Mandal of Anantapur District. Anthropometric profile and socio-economic status of the subjects was collected using a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire was used to assess the impact of nutrition education programme in changing the dietary behaviour of the subjects. The data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software. Results: In the present study, the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were found to be 12.1 and 2.7 percent, respectively. About 22.5 percent subjects were suffering from thinness and 5.8 percent of them fell under severe thinness category. In experimental group, post-intervention results indicated a significant (p<0.01) improvement in Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) scores when compared with control group. In experimental group, the gain in practice scores (10.28) was found to highest, followed by knowledge scores (10.24) and attitude scores (9.12). Conclusions: There is a greater need to improve the nutritional status of adolescents improving overall nutritional status of adolescent girls employing a multisectorial community-based approach.