Nutritional status, physical exercise and associated factors among urban secondary school adolescent girls in Ilala Municipal

Abstract

Background: Poor nutrition status among adolescent girls is a global public health challenge facing the world today, especially in the developing countries. In Tanzania more than 17.5% of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years are considered to be thin, with 4.4% being severely thin while about 9% are overweight or obese. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to poor nutrition because they are growing fast, they need more of protein, iron, and other micronutrients to support the adolescent growth development and meet the body's increased demand for iron during menstruation. Poor nutrition in adolescent girls contributes to maternal mortality/morbidity as well as to the low birth weight which in turn might contribute to increased percentage for infant mortality and nutrition-related chronic diseases. Objective: The study aimed at assessing nutrition status, physical exercise and associated factors among urban secondary schools adolescent girls aged 13 -19 years old in Ilala municipal. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 284 selected urban adolescent school girls aged from 14 to 19 years. Multistage, simple random sampling technique from Secondary schools in Ilala Municipal was carried out. Their nutritional status was determined using anthropometric measures (BMI for age). The socio demographic, individual and environmental variables were analysed to determine their relationship with under nutrition in adolescent girls. Data was analyzed using SPSS (version 18) and Anthroplus software package. Logistic regression analysis (bivariate) was used to examine how independent variables influenced dependent variable. Association between independent variable and dependent variable was considered significant if p-value is less than 0.05. Results: The study reveals prevalence of stunting in adolescent girls (31.4%) whereas 20.9% were severely stunted. wasted and overweight/obesity were 1.5% and 2.3% respectively. Study findings revealed that the only predictor variable which yielded significant result was quality of drinking water (p< 0.098).Conclusion: Under nutrition especially stunting of the adolescent girls is an important public health problem in the area and it is likely to remain a problem if left unaddressed and no intervention put is in a place.