Publication:

Prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among school going adolescents of Ahmedabad city, Gujarat: a cross sectional study

Background Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of critical development and transition. Adolescent constitutes over 23% of the population in India. Nutrition and health needs of the adolescent are more because of more requirements for growth spurt and increase in physical activity. Objective of the study was to study prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among school going adolescents of Ahmedabad city, Gujarat.

Methods The study was carried by Community Medicine Department, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan during period from September 2014 to July 2015. After taking the permission of principals of 9 schools and consent of the parents of adolescents, 842 adolescents from 10 schools of Ahmedabad city were examined for signs of various nutritional deficiencies. The data was collected by predesign, pretested proforma and analyzed using SPSS 17.0 (trial version).

Results Out of total 842 adolescents 409 (48.6%) were female. Mean age of the study adolescents was 15.8±1.96 years. Maximum numbers of the adolescents were in the age group of 10-14 years (60.5%). Mean age of female and male adolescents was 15.3±1.89 years and 15.9±2.02 years respectively. The study revealed that vitamin A deficiency was present in 59 (7.0%) children. Vitamin B complex deficiency signs were seen in 195 (23.2%) children. Vitamin C deficiency signs were seen in 88 (10.5%) children. PEM was observed in 111 (13.2%) children. Essential fatty acid deficiency was observed in 121 (14.4%) children.

Conclusions High prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among these adolescents needs great attention and health education.