Document Type : Original Article
Authors
- . Kameshwary Raikar
- . Archana Thakur
- . Abha Mangal
- . Joyce Felicia Vaghela
- . Sayantan Banerjee
- . Vinita Gupta
Department of Community Medicine, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, India
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Adolescence is characterized by a rapid phase of growth and development
during which the requirement of nutrition and micronutrients is relatively high. Although there is a
decreasing trend in the prevalence of undernutrition among adolescents, the current prevalence
of undernutrition is still very high (41.9%). Adolescents with good nutrition knowledge are more
likely to follow healthy eating habits. In the light of this, the current study was planned to assess the
baseline nutrition‑related knowledge of adolescent girls and the effectiveness of nutrition education
material (flipchart) in increasing their nutrition‑related knowledge.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A school‑based interventional study was conducted among adolescent
girls of class 9th of a school in an urban slum of Delhi. A structured pretested Knowledge Assessment
Questionnaire consisting of 10 multiple‑choice questions in Hindi with a maximum score of 10 was
used. The intervention was a nutrition education session conducted by doctors of Community Health
department using specially designed flipcharts covering important aspects of nutrition relevant for
adolescent girls. A demonstration of food items and charts and flex material was also given. The
total sample size was 265 adolescent girls.
RESULTS: Baseline knowledge as assessed by mean pretest score was poor (3.698 ± 1.81).
The students’ baseline knowledge was significantly associated with mother’s educational
status (P = 0.024). There was a significant increase (mean difference was 1.7890 ± 0.1434) in the
nutrition‑related knowledge of the participants after the intervention (P < 0.001). The proportion of
students who improved, i.e., 147 (55.47%) was more than proportion who deteriorated (25 [9.43%])
after the educational session. This difference was found to be statistically significant (P ≤ 0.001).
CONCLUSION: Nutrition knowledge was found poor among school‑going adolescent girls, which
significantly improved after the nutrition education session.
Keywords
An age of Opportunity. Available from: http://www.unicef.
org/sowc2011/pdfs/SOWC‑2011‑Main‑Report_EN_02092011.
pdf. [Last accessed on 2018 Mar 23].
2. Sivagurunathan C, Umadevi R, Rama R, Gopalakrishnan S.
Adolescent health: Present status and its related programmes
in India. Are we in the right direction? J Clin Diagn Res
2015;9:LE01‑6.
3. World Health Organization, Regional Office for South East Asia.
Child and Adolescent Health and development: Adolescent
Nutrition. Available from: http://www.searo.who.int/entity/
child_adolescent/topics/adolescent_health/adolescent_
nutrition/en/. [Last accessed on 2018 Mar 30].
4. World Health Organization. Health for the World’s Adolescents
a Second Chance in the Second Decade; 2014. Available from:
http://www.who.int/adolescent/second‑decade. [Last accessed
on 2018 Feb 23].
5. World Health Organization, Regional Office for South East Asia.
Adolescent Nutrition: A Review of the Situation in Selected
South‑East Asian Countries; 2006. Available from: http://
apps.searo.who.int/pds_docs/B0239.pdf. [Last accessed on
2018 Feb 23].
6. National Family Health Survey (NFHS‑4), 2015‑16: India.
International Institute of Population Science, Mumbai; 2017.
7. Toteja GS, Singh P, Dhillon BS, Saxena BN, Ahmed FU, Singh RP,
et al. Prevalence of anemia among pregnant women and adolescent
girls in 16 districts of India. Food Nutr Bull 2006;27:311‑5.
8. Kotecha PV, Patel SV, Baxi RK, Mazumdar VS, Shobha M,
Mehta KG, et al. Dietary pattern of schoolgoing adolescents in
urban Baroda, India. J Health Popul Nutr 2013;31:490‑6.
9. Grosso G, Mistretta A, Turconi G, Cena H, Roggi C, Galvano F.
Nutrition knowledge and other determinants of food intake and
lifestyle habits in children and young adolescents living in a rural
area of Sicily, South Italy. Public Health Nutr 2013;16:1827‑36.
10. Alam N, Roy SK, Ahmed T, Ahmed AM. Nutritional status,
dietary intake, and relevant knowledge of adolescent girls in
rural Bangladesh. J Health Popul Nutr 2010;28:86‑94.
11. Singh A, Grover K, Sharma N. Effectiveness of nutrition
intervention to overcome the problem of Anaemia. Food Sci Res
J 2014;5:184‑9.
12. Neumark‑Sztainer D, Story M, Falkner NH, Beuhring T,
Resnick MD. Sociodemographic and personal characteristics
of adolescents engaged in weight loss and weight/muscle gain
behaviors: Who is doing what? Prev Med 1999;28:40‑50.
13. Shah P, Misra A, Gupta N, Hazra DK, Gupta R, Seth P, et al.
Improvement in nutrition‑related knowledge and behaviour of
urban Asian Indian school children: Findings from the ‘Medical
education for children/Adolescents for Realistic prevention of
obesity and diabetes and for healthy aGeing’(MARG) intervention
study. Br J Nutrit 2010;104:427‑36.
14. Taneja G, Dixit S, Khatri A, Yesikar V, Raghunath D, Chourasiya S.
A study to evaluate the effect of nutritional intervention measures
on admitted children in selected nutrition rehabilitation centers of
Indore and Ujjain divisions of the state of Madhya Pradesh (India).
Indian J Community Med 2012;37:107‑15.
15. Meena JK, VermaA, KumarR. Evaluation of Integrated Childhood
Development Services (ICDS) program implementation in an
urban slum of Delhi, India. Int J Res Med Sci 2017;5:3443‑7.
16. Wang D, Stewart D, Chang C, Shi Y. Effect of a school‑based
nutrition education program on adolescents’ nutrition‑related
knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in rural areas of China.
Environ Health Prev Med 2015;20:271‑8.
17. Banerjee AV, Duflo E. The economic lives of the poor. Econ
Perspect 2007;21:141‑67.
18. Jaworska N, MacQueenG. Adolescence as a unique developmental
period. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2015;40:291‑3.
19. Casey BJ, Jones RM, Hare TA. The adolescent brain. Ann N Y
Acad Sci 2008;1124:111‑26.
20. Sawyer SM, Afifi RA, Bearinger LH, Blakemore SJ, Dick B,
Ezeh AC, et al. Adolescence: A foundation for future health. Lancet
2012;379:1630‑40.
21. Omran AR, Al‑Hafez G. Health Education for Adolescent Girls.
EMRO Nonserial Publication, WHO Regional Office for the
Eastern Mediterranean; 2006.
22. Yadav S, Arokiasamy P. Understanding epidemiological
transition in India. Glob Health Action 2014;7:23248.
23. Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner,
Government of India. Census of India; 2011. Available from:
http://censusindia.gov.in/. [Last accessed on 2018 Apr 23].
24. Lua PL, Putri Elena WD. The impact of nutrition education
interventions on the dietary habits of college students in
developed nations: A brief review. Malays J Med Sci 2012;19:4‑14.
25. Gupta N, Kochar G. Role of nutrition education in improving
the nutritional awareness among adolescent girls. Int J Nutrit
Wellness 2008;7:1‑4.
26. Bandyopadhyay L, Maiti M, Dasgupta A, Paul B. Intervention for
improvement of knowledge on anemia prevention: A schoolbased
study in a rural area of West Bengal. Int J Health Allied Sci
2017;6:69‑74.
27. Naghashpour M, Shakerinejad G, Lourizadeh MR, Hajinajaf S,
Jarvandi F. Nutrition education based on health belief model
improves dietary calcium intake among female students of junior
high schools. J Health Popul Nutr 2014;32:420‑9.
28. Joint Committee on Health Education Terminology. New
definitions: Report of the 1972‑1973. Hlth Educ Monogr
1973;1:63‑70.
)