Effects of Dietary Diversity and Eating Behaviours on Adolescent Girl‟S Nutritional Status in Government Schools, Akaki Kality Subcity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2020-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of rapid growth and maturation in human development that demands
extra nutrients and energy to support growth. Focusing on adolescent’s nutrition, especially
girls, provides a unique opportunity to break the intergenerational cycles of malnutrition.
However, there is little information about adolescent eating behaviours, dietary diversification
and nutritional status of adolescent girls, especially urban and school based. This study aimed to
assess the effects of dietary diversity and eating behaviors on schoolgirls nutritional status in
government schools in Akaki Kality sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 384 adolescent
girls between the ages of 10 to 19 years who were registered and attended in the selected 12
government primary and secondary schools in the year 2019/2020 were selected through
probabilistic two-stage sampling technique. The study used both quantitative and qualitative
research methods. Descriptive, bivariate, and econometric analysis (Ordered and multinomial
logistic regression) computed by STATA V14. Statistical significance was considered at p < 0.05
and the strength of statistical association was assessed by odds ratio with 95% confidence
intervals. Qualitative data collected through focus discussion group discussion using a semistructured questionnaire. Mean age of schoolgirls was 15.67 years (± 1.596). Overall stunting
and thinness of schoolgirls were 15.0% (60/384) and 14.1% (54/384) respectively and about
5.2%(20/384) schoolgirls were overweight and almost half of schoolgirls had low dietary
diversity score with their mean (±SD) dietary diversity score of 3.61 (± 1.33). The risk factors
for stunting were schoolgirls who used to drink sugary fluids [OR: 18, 95% CI (2.49- 130.89)],
schoolgirls who often feel hungry in the week [OR: 5.2, 95% CI (1.95- 14.05)], schoolgirls
whose family lower income status [OR: 4.97, 95% CI (2.46- 10.06)], and schoolgirls whose
lower BMI/age [OR: 1.53, 95% CI (1.27- 1.84)]. Similarly, the risk factors for thinness were
schoolgirls who used to drink sugary fluids [OR: 13.84, 95% CI (1.74-109.97)], schoolgirls
whose family lower income status [OR: 2.29, 95% CI (1.33-3.92)], schoolgirls who used to
practice daily eat on late [OR: 9.77, 95% CI (4.60- 20.72)] and irregular and who never
perform enough healthy exercise [OR: 1.95, 95% CI (1.07- 3.55)]. This study provided
important indicator for the nutritional status of ''tomorrow’s mothers’’ therefore; Akaki Kality
subcity education office should maintain the school feeding programme to mitigate poor
nutrition outcome following erratic feeding and meal skipping behaviours. Family should keep
attention and watch schoolgirls eating behaviours, weight, and health status since this is the
second opportunity to create feature generation through healthy growing feature mothers.
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Keywords
Adolescent Girls, Stunting, Thinness, Dietary Diversity, Feel Hungry, Meal Skip, Erratic Feeding