Nutritional Status of In-School Adolescents in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the nutritional status of in-school adolescents in Enugu State, Nigeria. Three specific objectives with corresponding research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 147,969 in-school adolescents in public secondary schools in Enugu State. The sample size was 1,440 respondents selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. Portable Stadiometer and SECA 803 Digital Body Weight Scale for height and weight measurement were used as instruments for data collection. The data was analyzed using frequency and percentages to answer all the research questions while ANOVA and t-test were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that 21.6 percent, 6.7 percent and 1.5 percent of in-school adolescents were underweight, overweight and obese respectively. The findings further indicated that in-school adolescents differed significantly in nutritional status according to age (F = 47.257, p-value=.000) and gender (female= (x=21.62, SD=4.17) & male= (x=20.87, SD=6.52); t (1422) = -2.56, p=.011). Based on the findings, the study recommended that Health education and sensitization campaign on promotion of normal nutritional status should be conducted by health educators and other health personnel regularly in schools and at designated places in the autonomous communities to educate the populace on the adequate nutritional intake especially during adolescence so as to avoid underweight, overweight and obesity.